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.
Sind die PISA-Ergegnisse für die Deutschen nur halb so schlimm, wie viele behaupten? PISA-Forscher Heller von der OECD erläutert, welche Schlüsse für das lebenslange Lernen (nicht) gezogen werden können. Darüber hinaus gibt er Informationen über geplante Studien in Zusammenarbeit mit der OECD, die helfen, die Zusammenhänge zwischen den vorliegenden PISA-Ergebnissen und den Fähigkeiten heutiger und künftiger Erwachsener besser zu bewerten.
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.
The present discourse in further education is recurringly concerned with cultures, systems and networks. Karin Dollhausen aims at furthering this discussion by drawing a neat line of definition between these crucial terms under the aspect of the sociology of organisations. She goes on to explain what each of the terms does or should mean for public institutions of further education: »culture« – seen as the system of relationships within an organisation – sharpens the view of internal communicat…
At first sight, Ortfried Schäffter’s thesis looks trivial: a »pedagogical« organisation is an organisation that concentrates on focussing the interplay of all its energies on the success of its specific – namely, pedagogical – work. Examined more carefully, however, this means that a pedagogical organisation is one that furthers learning. Its success cannot be measured in terms of numbers of charges taken care of, duration of care, or hours spent in caregiving or counselling, nor i…
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.
Course teachers who cooperate in quality assurance programmes of their institutions tend to find this work gratifying in various ways: they improve their professional background, they get to look at their institutions from a new and interesting angle, and they profit from organisational improvements arising from quality projects. If, however, excessive expectations are addressed to them in the course of the quality discussion, these may readily be reflected back onto the institution and its inf…
