Education processes in life-course-specific learning environments

Pillar 2 of the German National Educational Panel Study conceptualizes and operationalizes the learning opportunities individuals experience throughout their lives. These learning opportunities can take place in different formal, nonformal, informal, and familial learning environments. They are captured not only quantitatively but also concerning their quality. The quality of learning opportunities is framed within an opportunity-use model to bring together a social-environmental and an individual perspective. The information to be provided covers what learning opportunities an individual uses, their duration and intensity-and whenever possible-an estimation of their quality. Also, relations and transitions between different learning environments are covered at some critical intersections (e.g., school enrollment). Whereas the individual perspective stands at the focus of the National Educational Panel Study, different actors beside the target person contribute to the assessment of learning environments in specific cohorts and at specific stages. This leads to a comprehensive view of the cumulation of learning experiences and its effects on competence development, educational biographies, and educational decisions.