Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
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Changing the focus on Natural Sciences At present, public debates postulate more attention to natural sciences in the education sector. First, we will examine the precarious status of natural sciences in adult education and than argue that the traditional focus on natural sciences need to be readjusted. This change of focus aims at a general understanding of scientific developments by which both the individual and the society as a whole will gain and maintain its capacity to judge and act on…
Dealing professionally with negative emotions Tolerance of frustration and ambiguity as a key competence of providers of continuing education Dealing with disruptions is a key challenge in educational activities. This article uses abusive, insulting or fault-finding statements by participants to analyse professional ways of dealing with negative emotions. Tolerance of frustration and ambiguity are developed theoretically, understood as an element of a broad “feelings-management” and propa…
New responsibility for older people. “Senior citizen trainers“ in the EFI Programme: training concept and fields of activity This article presents a continuing education strategy with which older people are prepared for voluntary work as senior citizen trainers. The six-week course was developed in the model programme “experiential knowledge for initiatives” (briefly: EFI), which was funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth over a five-year period,…
Competence and education, emotions and virtues The ambivalence of competence in the portfolio experience of volunteers A portfolio setting in which volunteers identify, evaluate and document their competencies acquired through voluntary work is at the same time a location of special experience with education and competence: competencies expected by the labour market and acquired in voluntary work converge with predominating notions of education. This article looks at the antagonisms and int…
The "unreigned" subject Learning in adult education In adult education – but not only this profession - humanistic psychology, chaos theory, constructivism, modernisation theory are, among others, in many cases normatively charged. Thus they are no longer theories for explanation but instructions for the design of social reality, namely of further education. In contrast to this the author here is interested in the system of relations, in which the subjects are interwoven when they enter a …
Production and communication in adult- and further education research Since years questions of adult education and further education are worked on by research in Switzerland. Also the universities participate. Based on recherches it is debated, whether this research practice has lead to a creation of a social field which enables the continuity of discourse, the accumulation of knowledge, the formation of functional standards and the chances of acquiring reputation.
