Internationale Impulse für die Erwachsenenbildung

The report presents central findings of the PIAAC Study (»Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies«) conducted by the OECD and provides first estimates about its significance for adult education. Although PIAAC cannot offer any information about the correlation between causes and effects. However, it is reasonable to increase basic educational endeavours and extend the programmes for groups in danger of social exclusion. Finally, research tasks are pointed out.

http://www.diezeitschrift.de/12014/bildungsforschung-01.pdf

The report examines the transferability of Howard Gardner’s approach »Five Minds for the Future« to the field of continuing education. Along the »Five Minds«, he points out their significance as a plea for holistic education. Thus, future-oriented education does not impart a definite canon of knowledge but a positive preservation of learning. This pretence is transferable to continuing educational institutions which already include various holistic topics and forms of learning in their programmes but still need to upgrade their connection.

In this report, three different methods to approach Howard Gardner‘s »Five Minds for the Future« are revealed, which are each a connecting factor to adult education. As a popular scientific article to psychology and education in the context of a general educational debate, »Five Minds« indicates that the concept of independent adult education is not generally acknowledged. As educational theory, it serves as a useful tool for determining educational objectives. As a scientific creation, which contains autobiographical aspects, it informs about the individual nature of human learning.

This article acknowledges Hattie’s Meta-Study »Visible Learning« from a practical perspective, particularly from the continuing educational perspective of adult educators. The author regards Hattie’s findings on the learning effectiveness of instructors as particularly compatible. »Excellent instructors« are aware of their educational activities and adjust their actions to the logic of learning. Two examples are taken to point out which approaches are particularly effective for learning and how they can be practically implemented in adult education: the »lucidity of instructors« as well as the »formative evaluation of«.

Hattie‘s study »Visible Learning« is no reason to call for didactic changes in adult education - this is this article’s conclusion of the New Zealander’s meta-study from a continuing educational perspective. Nontheless, Hattie provides significant suggestions for the didactic debate. These suggestions include guidelines for suitable teaching activities as well as his rather provocative findings on the positive effects of actively guided lessons, which do not contradict adult educational considerations on the challenges of the educational framework of self-directed learning. This article also discusses the possible transferability of his findings from school to adult education. If Hattie indicates only a small impact of structural reforms in schools on learning, a smaller significance of structural issues in adult education cannot automatically be assumed.

Based on several contemporary international impulses on national educational policy, the article discusses the interaction of management and educational research, particularly indicator-aided educational reporting. First, the author scans the relevance and weaknesses of international interventions. In the light of national self-determination of educational issues, he stresses the significance of national educational reporting as well as the consideration of federal structure and regional levels. The highly complicated field of management practice also influences the construction and performance of international research – for example on the quality of educational systems.