Educational institutes have always been seen as needing to cooperate: this idea first took shape in education acts and is now increasingly being applied to lifelong learning. In practice, however, there are many arguments against cooperation at institutes of continuing education, not least as it can create unwanted situations of rivalry among the cooperating institutes. To develop models which will help guide schools on issues of cooperation better, further research is required: What advantage…
From 1992 to 2007 a considerable amount of German and EU funding was put into development projects described as “Qualification Development Management” (German acronym: QUEM) and aimed to support the quality of vocational qualification structures in the former GDR. QUEM was sponsored by the ABWF (Study Group for Corporate Continuing Education Research). In this article the author, a scientist working on QUEM, sums up the activities in the programmes and projects which were funded. He identifies …
This article proposes two interpretational approaches which sociological transformation research offers to reflect on east German transformation processes after reunification. (1) Taking the concept of transformation as modernisation catching up, a picture is painted of a society going through inevitable modernisation processes with a time delay. (2) From the theoretical perspective of contextualisation, transformation is seen as an objectless, complex, conflict-prone process during which easte…
A good two-and-a-half years after the EU's lifelong learning education programme began, the German National Agency has drawn up an interim balance and reflects current trends of the 2009 applications in the programme. GRUNDTVIG for general adult education. There is increasing demand for established forms of funding, affecting both learning partnerships and continuing education funding for individual workers in the field. Since 2009 the EU has put forward various new funding programmes. There ha…
The ways in which computer games can affect learning are identified using the example of games for fun, starting out with the aspect of research into learning and teaching theory. Approaches used in behaviourism, cognitivism and individual and social constructivism are compared. In the psychology of emotions, activating and deactivating emotions are distinguished with regard to their learning effect. From the point of view of the psychology of motivation, special emphasis is placed on the self-…
The education cheque, introduced in North Rhine-Westphalia, is a funding instrument which has been running since 2006 and is based on demand. This article presents the central results of an independent evaluation carried out in 2008. The quantitative aims have been achieved, or are likely to be achieved (212,000 attendees funded, 42,000 small and medium-sized enterprises approached by 2013; increasing attendance of continuing education courses in SMEs by two percent). On the negative side the a…
