The following report offers an insight on the theoretical and empirical issue of cultural adult education. It is understood as an institution for the refinement of the aesthetic senses which, according to Welsch, can easily become anesthetic – a situation of suspended sensitivity. A second empirical approach presents the current provisions systematized by three “Portals of Participation“. Cultural educational provisions may be attributed to the “systematic-receptive type“, the “independent-crea…
How to relate Natural Sciences to Adult Education Drawing on an intensive debate on the improvement of scientific literacy going on in Germany for more than ten years, this article deals with possible contributions of adult education. Starting with the marginal supply of science courses for adults, I focus on typical didactical arrangements and concepts. Based on an empirical study, exemplary didactical concepts are analysed regarding aims, topics, course type, and audience. The results are…
The didactical gap in the “didactical self choice” In adult education didactics are closely conglomerated with learn theoretical concepts without clearly naming its own questions in content. This becomes especially obvious in the newly research on e-learning. After the failure of the technically possible, the call for didactics has become loud. When one regards the pertinent publications, one finds remarkably many which take their didactical foundation from the learn theory and therewith ha…
The latest number of the Berichtssystem Weiterbildung (»Further Education Report System«) of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research marks a trend reversal: whereas in the last periods under review an increase in the attendance of further education courses was to be observed, currently attendance is regressive by five percent points – particularly in general further education. The author presumes that one reason for this is education’s focussing on the labour market perspective, an atti…
10% of German adults are estimated 1995 by OECD to be on a very low level of literacy, about 30% are on a low level. The author explores definitions and dimension of basic education. Restrictions exist for discussion in the lack of University research and the fact that illiterates form a part of the population described to be on a low level of literacy. But basic education is the prerequisite for independent, self-organized learning and the basis of general education. Therefore concepts to inte…
The concept of self-optimisation is closely linked to discourses on lifelong learning and has been discussed in adult education research for some time. The talk about selfoptimisation is mostly articulated as a critique or critical analysis, appears as almost self-evident and thus gets caught up in the pull of normalisation. The established problematisation of self-optimisation is therefore also subjected to problematization in this paper in an attempt to reopen the thinking of the problem. Th…
So far, numeracy as part of basic education has only been considered peripherally in the German-speaking countries, regarding the scientific as well as the practical approaches of adult education. In this article, theoretical and conceptual lines of the discourse are linked systematically. In addition, it is argued for an extension of the discourse by including the concept of subject-oriented basic education, which is based on the concept of numeracy as social practice. Initial findings from tw…
Im Mai 2025 wurde Karin Prien (CDU ) zur Bundesministerin für das neu gegründete Ministerium für Bildung, Forschung, Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend ernannt. Erstmals vereint ein Bundesministerium alle Bildungsetappen von der frühen Kindheit bis ins Alter und ermöglicht so eine durchgängige Perspektive auf lebenslanges Lernen. Über ihre Pläne und deren Bedeutung für die Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung sprachen mit ihr die Herausgeber Prof. Dr. Josef Schrader und Dr. Peter Brandt.
Was bedeutet es, die Wirkung von Weiterbildung zu messen? Was kann überhaupt wie gemessen werden? Und stellen sich in der Wissenschaft, in der Praxis und bei Fördergebern unterschiedliche Fragen bezüglich der Wirkung von Bildungsprozessen? Hierüber sprach Redakteur Jan Rohwerder mit Prof. Dr. Andreas Martin, Leiter der Abteilung System und Politik am Deutschen Institut für Erwachsenenbildung (DIE) und Professor für Bildungswissenschaft an der FernUniversität in Hagen, und Dr. Sabine Schwarz, Le…
Until now, the organization-specific proportion in professional development has received little recognition despite its significance for the occupational biographical professionalization of teachers and continuing educators. The book “Organization as Context for Professionalism” was written subsequently to a research and development project, which was aimed at the educational management of continuing educational organization for the professional development of educational employees. The result …
