Bøger af Zhiwei Chen

In traditional times, learning mainly referred to one-off or end-all school learning, neglected or rejected other learning forms, and had a partial economic center doctrine. However, along with the quick development of scientific technology and economy, as well as the advance of knowledge and the capital value of manpower, traditional school learning could not meet personal demand and needs of society¿s continuous development. Lifelong learning began to play an important role in an upheaval of the social policy.

Education is one of the key factors and basic driving force for the sustainable development of a society. From human¿s history, education and individual learning activities have been attached great importance and the research on education and learning has always continued generation by generation. With the rapid development of science, technology and social economy, as well as knowledge, skills, and improvement of the value of human capital, the status and role of education has been further improved and enhanced in the current era (Cheng 2009, S. 98). Education and learning has been entrusted with the new significances and meanings according to the rapid change and development of each aspect in the modern society. In the same time, the learning forms and styles have also changed and expanded to a much wider scope, not only limited to the traditional formal learning in schools or enclosed educational places or organizations, but also include different learning and educational forms, such as non-formal and even informal learning (Alheit 2009, S. 116).

The Report directed by James S. Coleman has mentioned that the effects of school resources on student achievement were weaker than those of students¿ families (Coleman et al. 1988, S. 95-120). The report also mentioned suggested that the performances and achievement by students have direct relationships with the family social and economic situations and conditions (Coleman et al. 1988, S. 95-120). Moreover, after discussing the influences based on the levels of students and schools to the learning achievement and performances, the results have shown obviously that the social and economic situations in the students¿ families have greater effects and influences, while the courses taught in the classroom and teachers¿ teaching experiences have little influences. Elliott (1998, S. 223-245) has found from the research work in the USA that the family and individuals¿ factors are much greater and more important than the school factors.

This researching is mainly focusing on the lifelong biographical experiences by different persons in China and Germany. The main researching method is biographical methods (Alheit 2009, S. 116) which take use of the interviews contents to do further and deeper analysis for the certain topics and themes. For this research, I have selected more than 20 interviewees in each country, with different social or learning background, and most of them could represent some certain kinds of groups in the society. With these interviewees, I have made interviews about their whole life process, especially the learning experiences and feelings until nowadays. Some of the narrative and interviewing contents are much more representative than others as they can stand for a different kind of learning and thinking type influencing by the schools learning factors and affairs, as well as the relating factors and materials. Therefore, from all the interviews, I have further selected 6 narrative contents in each country to make the comparison as follows. Each narration is a typical learning thought and idea which could be classified into a certain kind of social group. With the analyzing method and the basic notions of grounded theory (Alheit 1999, S. 1-19), this research has also made analysis based on the history, culture, law system, educational institutions, politician, social environment, etc. for each interview. The findings and researching results can offer new viewpoints and notions on the schools¿ influences and effects on learning motivations, behaviors, activities and even the lifelong learning process.