Kompetenzen im Erwachsenenalter – Befunde aus der Bildungsforschung

This paper brings into focus the discourse on competences and reviews critically the potential of large-scale assessments. The measurement of competences in adulthood is a step towards a deeper understanding of the development of competences during the life course, although only domain specific and not general competences are taken into consideration. Based on the current research, the debate on competences will be reflected and the central points in the field of modeling the constructs of skills and competences will be presented. The analysis of competences in the PIAAC and in the CILL study is basic for further research in this area. But longitudinal studies offer potentials for advanced knowledge and understanding; these possibilities will be explored on a methodological basis and demonstrated with respect to the panel study NEPS.

The latest PIAAC-results confirm from an international perspective the alarming data of the leo. – Level One Study published in 2011 in which 14,5 percent of the German population capable of work could be identified as functionally illiterate. Both studies have an immense impact on political discussions concerning basis education. To point out the strength of both studies for the field of adult education, there will be a brief summary and tabular comparison concerning the research design of both studies. Thereafter we will compare the data in respect to the aspect of participation in adult education. It is not so much the comparability but the complementarity of the studies that are to be clarified by this approach.

In PIAAC the assessed basic skill problem solving in technology-rich environments connects two different competences: problem solving and dealing with media. Based on a closer examination of this construct and related concepts the comparison of the terms shows overlaps as well as differences which also come into effect in their operationalization. A comparative analysis of the PIAAC instruments with instruments to assess media literacy, media competence or digital competence illustrates the different strategies of measuring skills. Our central thesis is that the possibilities of the testing method used in PIAAC are not to be seen in the substitution of other constructs and methods but in their addition.

The study Competencies in Later Life (CiLL) provides for the first time representative data regarding the competencies of older people between the age of 66 to 80 years in three different domains: literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments. It is shown that there are significant differences between people with different qualification, but also between people of different birth cohorts. Despite major qualification differences between men and women, there are no significant differences between genders in literacy. However, men outperform woman clearly in numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments even when considering other variables.

The article provides an insight into the first results of the PIAAC study and links it with mixed-method and qualitative-empirical approaches as well as the development of competencies in life course. For this purpose, it shows two studies which focus an individual development approach in contrast to the quantitative assessment approach of PIAAC. The aim is to present advantages and disadvantages of different research perspectives.

With increasing age, xenophobic and pejorative attitudes of people with a migration background and other cultures grow. Both adult education in older age and social work are hence faced with new challenges. On the basis of a statistic inventory on hostility of elderly people, different forms and specifications and also dimensions of discrimination are systematized by means of theory constructions. Enabling to focus on social community approaches, e.g. the concept of Habitus, as suggested by Bourdieu, is particularly relevant in this context. Finally, goals and didactic orientations at a socio-spacial and intercultural social work with elderly people will be formulated which refer to the single subject as well as to the arrangement of relationships and its placing in social discourses.