Die jährliche Volkshochschul-Statistik gilt als die reichhaltigste Einzelstatistik für einen Trägerbereich in der Weiterbildung. Sie bietet nach Bundesländern differenzierte Tabellen von Summen oder Verteilungen zu Personal, Finanzierung, Kurs- und Einzelveranstaltungen, Studienfahrten und -reisen, Ausstellungen. Alle Veranstaltungen sind durchgängig nach den Programmbereichen (1) Politik - Gesellschaft - Umwelt (2) Kultur - Gestalten (3) Gesundheit (4) Sprachen (5) Arbeit - Beruf (6) Gru…
Selbstgesteuertes Lernen (SGL) steht als Symbolbegriff für innovative Gestaltungen in der Weiterbildung und hat so eine bedeutsame programmatische Kraft entwickelt. Häufig wird es verstanden als das Lernen "alleine" oder das Lernen mit dem Computer. Dieses Begriffsverständnis greift aber deutlich zu kurz. Tatsächlich stecken in dem Konzept wichtige pädagogische Prinzipien. Für die institutionelle Weiterbildung entstehen neue Herausforderungen, aber auch zahlreiche bedeutsame Anregungen. Die Bei…
This article regards the publication of a text-foto-volume on the 100-year-history of the German Volkshochschule as an impulse for a possible innovation of writing history of adult education. First, the methodological principles of a both empirical and narrative historiography and its terminology will be described. Departing from a pragmatic moral intention of the book to present an affirmative history of the Volkshochschule, the article suggests a historical-normative historiography. Thereafte…
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 …
Scientific adult learning discussions refer to the concept of “region” mainly in policy contexts. Against this background, the author develops an approach to investigate regions from an organizational point of view. In a qualitative interview study using grounded theory within the framework of action-centered geography, he shows that adult education organizations and professionals construct regions in pedagogical practice. These practices need to be analyzed as a complex interplay between marke…
The planning of teaching and learning is a key task for teachers of adult and continuing education. This recurrent challenge demands situational decisions regarding objectives, contents, media and activities of teaching and learning, taking into consideration both the learner as well as organisational and spatial factors. However, empirical research indicates that these complex and interdependent decisions are often tackled insufficiently. Digital planning tools can be used to reduce the comple…
An essential task for administrative staff in adult education is to develop and offer courses. In the field of economic education (basic education), there exist only very few offers and didactic material. Hence, there is a great demand to describe requirements concerning competencies to be taught in this area. Such requirements for competencies may serve as a base for the development of courses in adult education. This article explores the questions on which requirements concerning competencies…
The German Adult Education Centres (VHS) consider themselves as further learning institutions for all whose aim it is to address the population at large. However, the data basis on the extent to which socially disadvantaged groups are reached is restricted. The present contribution investigates to which extent persons with a low level of school education are represented among the participants of the Adult Education Centres in Berlin. The investigation is linked to previous results of the resear…
Recent empirical data show that 7.5 million adults in Germany do not reach a minimum level of reading and writing skills and, therefore, are classified as functional illiterates. However, the social and educational background of this part of the population differs considerably from wide-spread perceptions of the target group as it is represented in courses for illiterates in adult education. While the latter normally showed heavy learning problems at school, the wider group normally passed scho…
The development of interest in adult education This article presents results of a project funded by the DFG on the development of interest in continuing and further education. We connect our work to most recent research on biographical genesis of interest and focus occuring during an individual’s participation in adult education. As theoretical approach we refer to the Munich theory of interest and the pragmatist approach. We empirically investigate the opportunities and limitations of a qua…
