The guest speakers, Prof. Tippelt and Dr. Schmidt-Hertha, gave an interesting lecture about the CiLL-study which focuses on the measurement of competencies of people aged between 66 and 80 years. The CiLL-study (Competencies in Later Life) is a joint project delivered by the DIE (German Institute for Adult Education) in cooperation with the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich (LMU) Institute for Pedagogy led by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Tippelt, Prof. Dr. Dieter Gnahs and Dr. Bernhard Hertha-Schmitt. The study is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF).
In his lecture, Prof. Tippelt presented the background of the study, for example the demographic changes in our society, and the results of the EdAge-study (Educational Aging). CiLL is a parallel study to the PIACC-Survey (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), aiming to include elderly people into the analysis. The measurement of competencies is based on the same instruments as those of PIACC to assure comparability among the participants. Dr. Schmidt-Hertha presented the three domains “literacy”, “numeracy”, and “problem-solving in a technology-rich environment” by way of example items. He also went into some more detail regarding the special characteristics of this specific target group during fieldwork stage.
Furthermore, the measurement of competencies for test persons of older age was vigorously debated by the representatives of the CiLL-study, Prof. Tippelt and Dr. Schmidt-Hertha, and representatives of the Central Coordinating Department and the Research Group Competence Development of the NEPS.