Vienna’s adult education centres have developed a frame curriculum which focuses on the eight European key competences in continuing education with consideration of national and European educational strategies as well as the European Qualification Framework. The report focuses on the frame curriculum’s key elements and its contact points with the National Qualification Framework – taking the programme area of art and culture as an example. Cultural awareness and artistic competence as a key com…
South-east European countries are receiving support from “western” institutions in developing their education system structures. One professional involved in development cooperation in the field of adult education is dvv international, the German Adult Education Association’s institute for international cooperation. By evaluating work in Romania, Serbia and Kosovo, this article reflects on strategic decisions resulting from this work. It demonstrates that it is correct to take account of differ…
This article sums up development cooperation in adult education, providing information about the fields in which this cooperation takes place, which funds it uses and which professionals are involved. When it comes to the question of how German adult education exports have affected transitional countries, the spotlight is on evaluation. The authors ascertain that evaluation work has reached different stages in different educational fields. In the sector of vocational education cooperation the f…
In this article the theory and practice of adult education are described as a system which sustains itself using certain rules of play. The author starts out with an introduction to the term »play/game« placing particular emphasis on the fact that this game sets off further acts of communication: further moves are made. Next, four dimensions are identified in which ways of playing games can be observed: the personal, the social, the organisational and the community dimension. Adult education is…
More lower rungs for the ladder. A proposal for new literacy levels This article asks whether international models can be applied as a means of finding well-differentiated literacy levels to map skills acquired during the literacy process. To this effect, the article examines the American “component approach”, the English “entry levels” and the “lower rungs approach”. One result is that the article leans towards the means of educational diagnosis known as “formative assessment”. Based on thi…
Local responses to local challenges Marketing strategies of adult education centres during times of demographic change As a result of their course offerings and their target groups, adult education centres offer excellent prerequisites for structuring and shaping demographic change at the local level. These centres thus fulfil a necessary social function while at the same time strengthening their own position. Target-group oriented marketing by the same token plays a major role in order to …
Data on adult education centres kept since 1962 shows interesting longitudinal historical results regarding time structures for adult education classes offered at adult education centres: (1) The increase in continuing education activities which can be observed on the whole is only accounted for by course-type classes, not by individual classes. (2) The average course time has decreased by about 20 percent over the last 20 years. (3) With respect to forms of time organisation, the evening cours…
