The rapid development of digital technologies and their increasing application in many areas of everyday life challenge all citizens to continuously learn digital skills. This also applies to older adults, among whom digital literacy is on average less well-developed than among younger adults. This article investigates why retired older adults…

The first of two volumes dedicated to this little-explored topic, this volume gathers international perspectives to critically assess how Waldorf education has been perceived and discussed in both public and academic arenas. The book thereby challenges the historical concept of Waldorf education as an international movement championing…

Teaching sustainability topics puts teachers in a tense relationship: on one hand, they should convey the importance and urgency of the topic, but at the same time, this should be done in such a way that students can form their own judgements. In addition, teachers may themselves become privately involved and interested in the topic, which…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

This article discusses characteristics and forms of international collaborative research projects (ICRPs) and provides conceptual considerations as well as initial empirical insights on the impact of funding conditions on ICRPs in the social sciences and external project funding. Specifically, by presenting a German case study of funding formats…

Qualifications frameworks are tools for describing qualifications of an education or training system by classifying them into levels. Each level provides a clear description of what the holder of a qualification knows, understands and is able to do. They are important tools for making qualifications transparent and comprehensible, within and…

Data and its applications are increasingly ubiquitous in the rapidly digitizing world and consequently, students across different disciplines face increasing demand to develop skills to answer both academia's and businesses' increasing need to collect, manage, evaluate, apply and extract knowledge from data and critically reflect upon the derived…

As higher education quality assurance in many countries in Europe has become a mature activity, some agencies carrying out external quality assurance are developing beyond their core tasks and missions. The current study identifies new tasks taken up within quality assurance agencies and analyses the drivers behind such development. Based on an…

This qualitative biographical case study presents the case of 79-year-old Mrs. Blade and her attitude toward education and ICT (information and communication technology) use. A biographical-narrative interview with additional PCI questions was conducted. Material was analyzed using the approach of 'reconstruction of narrative identity'. The case…

Background: Despite a global policy push toward the advancement of family- and community-based care, residential care for children and youth remains a relevant and highly utilized out-of-home care option in many countries, fulfilling functions of care and accommodation as well as education and treatment. Objective: As part of a larger project…

I set out to understand how memorial site educators conceptualize Holocaust education and how notions of history, memory, and place shape their ideas. I explored the teachings of four veteran memorial site educators at a site of memory of the Holocaust in Germany. The analysis was grounded in theories of collective memory broadly (Assmann, 2010;…

The purpose of this study is to compare the instructional practices in science education in Malaysian and German secondary schools. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to seek answers for the following questions: (i) What are the current science teachers' instructional practices in German secondary school? (ii) What are the current…

Creating critical mass has become a cornerstorne of science policy on both national and transnational levels. It suggests that once a certain size is reached, exponential growth or accelerated change will occur. In reconstructing theories, policies and practices associated with critical mass, the paper traces the image of critical mass as a size…

The 2019 UNESCO recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) encourages member states to monitor policies and mechanisms in OER across the world. In higher education, there are many initiatives and policies around OER. This contribution gives insights into the current situation concerning OER policy documents that are of national or…

This contribution introduces the general principles of doctoral education in Germany first and then describes and discusses four key drivers of change: the increase in numbers, the diversification of degree models, the impact of the Bologna reforms on doctoral education, and changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the conclusions the…