Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
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Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
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We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
Within the framework of a four-year project (2015-2018) supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and des ESF, among others, the competencies and the orientations guiding the practice of validation personnel in adult education are inquired. While most of the existing research concentrates on competency validation arrangements and instruments, the present research uses a qualitative research design to look at the actors and their practice from the perspective …
Similarly to Austria and Switzerland adult education competencies could be recognized cross-provider in Germany. Within a joint research and development project the DIE and different associations of adult and continuing education develop basics for a correspondent method for teachers. The authors focus on preceded feasibility studies and needs assessments of the DIE. These show an overwhelming approval of the target group to initiate such activities, but also see risks as well as opportunities …
Personal and organisational educational counselling The need for support in the search for tailor-made educational programmes is growing along with the ongoing individualisation of educational pathways. Counselling of individuals and organisations is gaining importance in this context. This issue focuses both on new theories as well as educational policy developments, devoting attention to current challenges in various fields of action: the training of vocational counsellors, research of coun…
The article provides an insight into supranational and international continuing education monitoring. The author identifies three particularly relevant tools for adult learning: the Adult Education Survey conducted by the EU, the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the European Lifelong Learning Index. The findings of the author’s dissertation substantiate the effects of monitoring and educational reporting in available data, evaluation practice and…
Analytical competency in classroom situations can be seen as a crucial aspect of teachers' professional competency. While case-based learning is considered to have great potential for teacher education, particularly with respect to the promotion of teachers' analytical skills, there have been very few attempts to investigate the effects of corresponding instructional support. The present empirical study investigated the effects of instructional support in the form of multiple perspectives (i.e.…
Lifelong Learning, being one of the key issues of the Bologna Process, aims at horizontal and vertical permeability of interdependent education systems in order to be accessible to many target groups. Hence, the recognition and crediting of qualifications achieved outside of the academic realm has become increasingly more important. Despite numerous efforts within the past 10 years national standards regarding this issue are not sufficiently developed at this point. The comparison of the dif…
Volunteering in the field of migration/refuge opens up a potential learning space for the acquisition of numerous competencies. The paper is based on an empirical pre-study from Austria and focusses on an analysis of political learning processes amongst volunteers and their implications for the development of active citizenship and the connected challenges for adult education. Diverse factors influencing the engagement of volunteers, such as political and media discourse about refugees, are con…
The textbook provides an introduction to the field of education of older adults and lifelong learning. Coming from an interdisciplinary field of research related to ageing, learning abilities and learning needs of older adults are discussed. Additionally, adequate forms of learning and educational arrangements are presented. A special focus lies upon the correlation between competencies and age, taking into account diverse living conditions and biographies. Thus, the textbook offers impulses to…
This paper draws on three data sources – a national survey from Germany of adult literacy and numeracy skills (leo. – Level-One Study), the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC), and case studies of workplaces in England – to argue for a greater focus by policymakers and researchers on the literacy demand experienced by adults. We consider the heterogeneity of the population of adults deemed functionally illiterate by large-scale national and internatio…
Adult education is a field that is strongly shaped by tensions between scientific and political demands. The development of competencies as well as the idea of continuing to learn throughout the whole life are topics that have been debated in science and policy for many years and are still of great importance today. This dissertation deals with the relationship between science and European education policy in adult education by analyzing scientific journal articles and political documents from …
