German Institute for Adult Education

The German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) is an institute of the Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz academic community (WGL), carrying out federally and state-supported research. It acts as a link between academic and practical work in adult education, provides the basis for practical research and develops innovative approaches. The cornerstones of the institute’s work are the provision of services, research support, networks and international activities. Through publications, conferences, projects and documentation, the DIE

• supports lifelong learning,
  
• encourages ongoing education based on learners’ needs,
  
• develops and carries out trials of frameworks and training modules,
  
• organises and evaluates academic training and counselling,
  
• develops certificates and curricula based on quality and professionalism,
  
• co-operates with academic, political and administrative institutions,
  
• provides the basic principles for teaching and research,
  
• develops and provides academic accompaniment for experimental models,
  
• evaluates and analyses systems and support structures in adult education.

90 members of staff are employed by the DIE, a third of whom are academic staff. Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein, who also has a chair at the University of Marburg in the Department of Adult Education, has been the Head of the Institute since 1991. The DIE’s annual budget amounts to almost 6 millions Euro.

Under German law, the DIE is a registered association. The members represent the entire range of academic and practical work in German adult education.

Members

The universities of Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hanover, Kaiserslautern and Marburg represent the academic element, also represented by The Working Group for Adult Education in Universities (AUE), The German Society for Educational Sciences (DGfE), The German Institute for Distance Learning Research (DIFF), The German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF) and the Institute for the Pedagogy of Natural Sciences (IPN).

The Working Group for German Educational Establishments (ADB), The German Association of Distance Education, The Federal Working Group for Work and Life, The German Protestant Working Association for Adult Education (DEAE), The German Adult Education Association (DVV), The Federal Association for Family Planning and Counselling, The Federal Union of German Library Associations (BDB), The German Confederation of Trade and Industry (DIHT) and The Federal Organisation of Partner Educational Undertakings represent the practical side of the Institute’s work.

Administrative Council

• Chair: Prof. Dr. Erhard Schlutz, University of Bremen
  
• Vice-Chair: Dr. Diethard Möckel, Ministry for School, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia

Academic Council

• Chair: Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Peter Meyer-Dohm, Hannover
  
• Vice-Chair: N. N.

Users’ Council

• Chair: Dr. Susanne May, Munich Institute of Adult Education (VHS)
  
• Vice-Chair: Dr. André Schläfli, Swiss Federation for Adult Learning

Further Education and Counselling

The state of the profession and the organisation in the field of continuing education are at present undergoing rapid change. Analysing this change and providing the necessary academic backing is one of the central tasks of the Department of Further Education and Counselling. In this department

• developments in practical work are examined and the results conveyed from academic to practical work and vice-versa,
  
• concepts for further education and counselling are developed, tried out and evaluated,
  
• academic counselling is provided for practical work and research into adult learning is made available to practice,
  
• training in universities and in-service training are supported and developed,
  
• an up-to-date range of qualifications and competences for staff in further education is defined.

As well as topic-based project work, the department provides a specific programme of further education and counselling. This aims at extending competence, reinforcing and encouraging self-confidence and professional confidence, the formation of personal and professional identity and the ability to cope with crisis situations.

The teaching of practical and theoretical competence for the various professions represented in further education and the defining and supporting of the many different options available for organisational development in the field of further education form the cornerstones of the programme in further education and counselling.

Planning and Development

This department of the DIE develops, tries out and evaluates concepts and curricula in adult education with the aim of encouraging lifelong learning and socially responsible and humane teaching and learning. The Department of Planning and Development carries out applied research and encourages research relevant to practice in universities and other academic institutions. In this way not only are new organisational forms of teaching and learning with adults, planning and quality assurance in institutions of further education drawn up, but practically applicable concepts and materials are also acquired.

Didactic models in several different content areas are developed in the Department of Planning and Development – e.g. languages, health education, senior citizens’ education, vocational further training, environmental education, culture and media. These are tried out in co-operation with institutes of further education and then disseminated. This approach guarantees didactic models which build on existing experience, open up new task areas and make the transfer from academic findings to practical work possible.

The department co-operates with institutions of vocational education, political education, women’s education, environmental education and senior citizens’ education in the planning and development of work in specific subject areas.

Meetings and conferences dealing with one subject and, increasingly, meetings covering more than one area, thus allowing interdisciplinary and innovative discussion, are an important component of the planning and development work of the institute.

The Department of Planning and Development works with the WeiterbildungsTestsysteme (WBT). The WBT administers the certificates developed in the DIE.

Information and Publishing

The task of the Department of Information and Publishing of the DIE is to compile documents, materials and statistics and provide the basis for research work at universities and their institutes.

Wide-ranging sources of information are available: a comprehensive data base of literature which is constantly being updated, the archives of the programmes of the German adult education institutions /VHS), the annually updated statistics on this work and also the largest academic specialist library for adult education in the German-speaking world. All these provide the sources of information for interested adult educationalists from academic and practical fields. The work of the Department of Information and Publication covers

• compiling the annual statistics of the German adult education institutions (VHS)
  
• providing targeted analyses of programmes and literature research,
  
• working on specific statistical issues,
  
• drawing up an Internet communication system for professional adult educationalists;
  
• issuing the annual bibliography of adult education.

The academic editors and the publishers of the various DIE publications are part of this department. The publications cover almost the entire range of interests in adult education, each focussed on the needs of the particular readership and covering all the institutional and staff, content-related and methodological aspects as well as the theoretical and practical issues. The DIE range of publication (in German) includes:

• Theory and Practice of Adult Education
  
• REPORT, Literature and Research Report Further Education
  
• Study Texts on Adult Education
  
• Practice in Perspective
  
• State Survey of Further Education
  
• DIE Magazine for Adult Education

A catalogue of DIE publications can be found on the DIE homepage: www.die-bonn.de/Publikationen. Orders can be made online and are sent on directly to the W. Bertelsmann publishing house (wbv) which publishes the entire range of DIE publications.

German Institute for Adult Education
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 38
53113 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 32940
Fax: + 49 228 3294399
E-Mail: info@die-bonn.de

Press releases

Further Information: www.die-bonn.de/