Center for Transdisciplinary Continuing Education Research

The Center for Transdisciplinary Continuing Education Research conducts teaching and research activities in the field of empirical educational research. From an educational science perspective, we focus on

• the basic prerequisites of learning skills,
• the participation in educational processes along the entire life span and
• the conception of a coherent educational management.

The Center for Transdisciplinary Continuing Education Research works in cooperation with technical sciences (educational technologies and architecture), health (evidence-based medicine) and psychology, on the issues of digitalization of education, learning environment and space, cognitive, motivational, and emotional prerequisites of learning, benefits of learning, language development and dementia prevention.

Together with other educational professions, we communicate and transfer our findings of international and national projects to continuing education and the relevant educational sectors, and at the same time, we design and create participatory and innovative solutions (Real World Laboratories) for educational challenges.

Call for Papers- Der pädagogische Blick

Special Issue on the Role of Education in Social Inclusion of Refugees and
Migrants
We are pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue on the role of education in social inclusion of refugees. The issue will focus on exploring the current and innovative ways in which education (formal, non-formal and informal) can support refugees in their social integration, and the challenges and opportunities in this field. We welcome papers that examine the impact of adult education on the social integration of refugees, as well as papers that explore innovative approaches to adult education for refugees.

Dr. Arif Shala is currently working on his habilitation at the University of Stuttgart in the field of educational research and is investigating differences in performance in large-scale longitudinal international studies such as PISA and TIMSS in Kosovo and Albania. Arif Shala holds a PhD in Education from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and a Master's degree in Education from the University of Derby in the UK. Dr Arif Shala has subsequently published on various topics related to student achievement, learning and skills acquisition. He taught for six years at AAB College in Prishtina, Kosovo, at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Early Childhood Education, where he taught educational and social science research methods in the Bachelor of Social Sciences programme for prospective kindergarten teachers.

Together with a team from the University for Continuing Education Krems he completed an APPEAR project that focussed on the use of educational technologies to improve school readiness assessment and intensify support diagnostics in the context of an innovative community education approach in Kosovo.

One aim of his research, which coincides with the Centre for Transdisciplinary Research in Continuing Education, is to provide evidence-based answers for greater equity and social cohesion in education systems across the lifespan. The comparative study of indicators and their applicability in the context of lifelong learning in countries with opportunities for a demographic dividend - Kosovo is the only European country with this potential - and countries with diametrically opposed developments due to demographic change play a central role.

As a visiting professor, Arif Shala, together with the Professor of Continuing Education Research and Education Management at the University for Continuing Education Krems, will focus on early childhood education and the professional development of early childhood specialists through academic continuing education. With the help of a digitally supported assessment of learning outcomes, increasingly multilingual generations will be given a sustainably positive start to formal learning and longitudinal research will be trialled from the very beginning. In addition to teacher-led research on the skills development of professionals in elementary education, a contribution is made to basic research on closing educational gaps and increasing permeability in discourse with practitioners. Evidence-based teaching and games research along the lifespan is supplemented with the module of recording learning prerequisites and established as innovative transdisciplinary didactics in the Bachelor Professional Applied Educational and Social Sciences which is currently under development.

Dr.in Bettina Thöne-Geyer is a researcher at the German Institute for Adult Education - Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) in Bonn. The institute, which is funded by the federal government and the federal states, conducts research on questions of adult learning and teaching, continuing education programmes, continuing education institutions and the political and institutional context of lifelong learning. Bettina Thöne-Geyer's academic activities focus on adult learning with its preconditions, forms and consequences. In recent years, Bettina Thöne-Geyer has conducted research primarily on continuing vocational education and training at adult education centers, literacy and basic education in the European context, and the benefits of participation in general adult education.

In addition to research stays in the USA on the topic of vocational and career guidance (Universities of Berkely and Walnut Creek), Bettina Thöne-Geyer was a lecturer at the Universities of Duisburg-Essen, Bremen, Wuppertal and Krems. Bettina Thöne-Geyer is currently researching the topic of "Education in old age and education for ageing" at the "Organisation and Programme Research" department in the DIE.

She has strengthened teaching in the Department of Continuing Education Research and Educational Technologies with her research topics and made valuable contributions to colloquia relevant to the PhD "Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning" (in accreditation) and the "Series of transdisciplinary Dialogues on Continuing Education Research".

LLCC-EduKos stands for “Setup a Learning-along-lifespan Community Center in Pristina: Researched based early childhood education with living labs across vertical and horizontal borders”.  

The Kick-off Meeting was a great interactive start, and we are looking forward to our joint cooperation.

The project partners University for Continuing Education Krems and AAB College, Pristina met on 18^th February 2022 in the virtual Kick-off Meeting to discuss the administrative and financial details as well as the next steps to reach the project goals. The starting point was already the joined submission of a Symposium “Building up Lifelong Learning Competence in a Standardised, Culturally Sensitive and Socially Inclusive Way within the Framework of Educational Management”  in Organizational Education for the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) together with researchers of the University of Marburg in Yerevan in August 2022 to present the methodology and needs assessment to a wide international audience.

Dean and Department Head, Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Stefan Oppl, MBA; Univ.- Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Monika Kil and Managing Director LOGmedia, Volker Sassenberg

The Center for Transdisciplinary Continuing Education Research also works with the business community in cooperation with the disciplines of technical science (digitization and space), evidence-based medicine and psychology (cognitive, motivational and emotional learning requirements, language acquisition and dementia prevention). The focus of LOGmedia - Institute for Digital Education is on the production of professional therapy and diagnostic software for the support of children and adolescents. For example, by means of different LOGmedia software components, language levels, basic school skills and developmental progress can be transferred into an educational monitoring system.  A workshop on the practice of "kindergarten pedagogy" and "social work" was organized to present the educational innovations, piccoLOG and eduLOG, and the participants had the opportunity to gain insight into their usage. LOGmedia grants the UWK free use of its software components (incl. updates) for equipping the Center for Transdisciplinary Continuing Education Research. Thus, a cooperation partnership exists, which can also bring innovative educational technologies into the professional development through teaching and at the same time enables research.