Sabine Hochholdinger & Dipl.-Päd. Inka Leidig
Individuals who sell and conduct continuing education programmes like to think of themselves as trainers. In Germany, this professional group works in extremely heterogeneous employment conditions, which means that we observe a number of different educational biographies and qualifications. Until now, trainers’ influence upon training and transfer outcomes have hardly featured in research on the psychological aspects of vocational coaching, although practitioners believe that trainers play a very important role in this respect. Empirical educational research has shown that school teachers, for instance, are of vital importance to the learning success of their pupils. For some time now, researchers of continuing education in the workplace have called for the definition of empirically grounded competencies in order to further professionalise the field of continuing education.
One aim of our research projects is to identify successful trainer characteristics by using theoretical, literature-based and our own inquiries. To this end, we are currently investigating the following:
- What do continuing education practitioners have to say about the performance they are expected to deliver? This we investigate by means of qualitative literature analyses and interview studies.
- To what extent do the individual characteristics of continuing education practitioners impact their clients’ subjective coaching experience and the quality thereof? For this reason, we translated a psychological skills model used in schools to the continuing education context, adapting it for practical use by means of an exploratory survey, while also collecting information on the participants’ views on the success of their training.
Publications
Hochholdinger, S. (2013). Ein interdisziplinärer Blick auf die Forschung zum Weiterbildungspersonal. (An interdisciplinary perspective of research on continuing education practitioners.) Sektionstagung Erwachsenenbildung der DGFE, Universität Magdeburg.
Hochholdinger, S. & Leidig, I. (2012). Wie lässt sich die professionelle Handlungskompetenz von Trainern/Trainerinnen ermitteln? (How can the professional skills of trainers be evaluated?) In G. Niedermair (Hrsg.), Evaluation als Herausforderung der Berufsbildung und Personalentwicklung (S. 351-368). Linz: Trauner.
Leidig, I. & Hochholdinger, S. (2011). Wie lässt sich pädagogische Professionalität von Weiterbildungspersonal feststellen? (How can the professional competencies of continuing education practitioners be defined?) BWP-Herbsttagung: Universität Konstanz.
Hochholdinger, S. & Leidig, I. (2012). Welche Kompetenzen benötigen Trainer in der Weiterbildung? (Which competencies do continuing education practitioners need?) 48. Tagung der DGPS: Universität Bielefeld.