Concept maps in the teaching-learning context Concept maps are understood to mean two-dimensional structural presentations of knowledge or information in the form of a network. This article explains the principle of the concept map, including in relation to the mind map, and sums up results of teaching-learning research for its use. Readers find out what purposes concept maps can be used for (e.g. knowledge diagnostics), how their learning efficacy is assessed and what factors can boost th…
Movement and experience as the breeding ground of learning From the perspective of experiential pedagogic the two authors develop an outline for experience and action-oriented practice in adult education. They examine in detail the hypotheses confirmed by brain research that the body is the actual site of human learning. This allows them to create the basis for a didactical setting conducive to learning which is heavily based on physical body-related experience in nature and in the communit…
Learning along biographical and career changes Based on a biographical sample from adult education centres (VHS), this article discusses the concept of research on learning environments. The factors for success will be evaluated together with reflections on how to prepare for an executive position in such institutions. This will allow for extracting conditions for learning in certain biographical settings. The challenge for learning is seen as a result of the individual’s changing reception…
The authors take the model of reproduction contexts, which has been developed by Josef Schrader in order to systematize the adult education sector, as a point of departure to discuss the possibilities of its empirical transfer. Based on the re-analysis of structural data of adult education institutions the problems of transfer of a theoretically developed model are explored. They conclude by outlining impulses for further discussions.
In adult education, fields of activity have lost their strict boundaries: administrative employees also perform pedagogical work – such as counselling, for instance – and full-time pedagogical employees also have to handle administrative work – e.g. in project management. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, administrative employees play an important role in the pedagogical functioning of institutions of adult education, although this factor is often neglected in both research and measures of…
A video-study of language courses in adult education analyses the transformation of a learning side into a pedagogical space. The definition of pedagogical space is linked to the theory of social space. Space is thus viewed as an arrangement and perception between human beings and social goods. This recasting of social space as a pedagogical space specifies social space to include two additional elements: the representation of knowledge and pedagogical media. For this study, the transformation …
This article provides an overview of the debate on learning environments and learning locations within adult education research; the authors use a historical review of main research topics in order to understand current learning environments and recent theoretical and empirical discussions. The term of learning environments or learning locations has been introduced into research on adult education in the 1970ies; since this time, each following decade can be characterized by several specific re…
The following article focuses on the debate on organizational learning from an adult-educational point of view. In most approaches to organizational learning the members of an organization are regarded as the main drivers of organizational learning processes. However, such approaches do not systematically incorporate important presumptions of learning-theory, although this promises to create a better understanding of adult-educational experiences within organizations. Hence, the article present…
Due to the increasing blur of learning boundaries, the need arises for re-defining the concept of learning space. Based on an understanding of learning space, which refers to the local circumstances within organized education programs, the article initially aspires to include the debate on learning space in the discussion of informal learning, before it then focuses on the relation between time and location and the significance of virtual learning spaces. The article itself does not re-define t…
