Within the framework of the PISA discussion, adult education must discover the parents as an affected part of the public more than has as yet been the case. Parents need scientifically founded summary knowledge as a basis for decision-making (for example concerning the educational orientation of their children), and professional guidance in matters of the enhancement of learning capacity at an early age.
Teacher training responds to the PISA results with professional qualification of the teaching staff in the areas of deficiency (language and reading competence, mathematical-scientific knowledge, competence in diagnosis and support). Apart from that it must also help school as a system to evolve in manifold ways (obligatory training, school autonomy, staff development, co-operation of schools in matters of instruction, systematical planning of training measures).
Research on humans and animals gives evidence for the fact that older beings learn more slowly than younger ones, yet for this very reason they are able to build up internal representations of the true values to be learned in an increasingly more precise manner. Through frequent repetition general structures of experiences are learned. Thus, a decreasing rate of learning that comes with old age is just one side of the coin.
The article sets out to identify common prejudices on e-learning. Its pedagogical surplus depends on the methodical-didactic design. The authors back their verdict by experiences of learners in an online-based course. Learners judge new-mediasupported learning as being intensive, communicative, but time-consuming. E-learning requires self-discipline, selfmotivation, self-organisation, good time management and basic technical competences.
Federal law as envisaged in the socalled Hartz paper provides for the introduction of education vouchers. Is political education concerned? Against this background, the author explores funding structures of political education on the federal as well as on the Länder plane, of municipalities and foundations. Her verdict is disenchanting: many institutions of political education, especially the very small ones, are facing their end. This is corroborated by two statements of experts from the field…
Taking demographical development as a starting point, Turek identifies functions of political education. It should help to avoid the »clash of generations «. Demographical change, however, is only one of several trends: the change from modern industrial society towards a transnational technological society calls for a new »contract across generations«. Political education initialises a future-oriented selfremodelling of society and thus becomes an investment into its human resource…
Recently, the acceptance of statistics in the education sector has grown. As a consequence of the publication of international comparative studies like TIMSS and PISA, more attention is paid to statistical surveys, as they have brought to light quite a number of hitherto unknown facts. Alexandra Ioannidou describes the present state of statistical activities in the further education sector and outlines what possible gains there are for institutions employing statistics.
After the federal elections, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has taken on a new organisational structure. For the first time, its activities in further education are now bundled together in a seperate department (»Lifelong Learning, Further Education«), thus enabling the ministry to »speak with one voice«. On top of this, the superior department is »University, Further Education«, which shows that the two are considered as equivalent from the organisationalpolitical viewpoint.
Ein Blick auf die Krise in der politischen Bildung von den 1960er Jahren bis heute.
