Pilot Projects in Vocational Education and Training: On the Transfer of Their Results

The initial phase of the model experiment program was characterized by the expectation that model experiments would significantly increase the degree of rationality in setting the course for education policy and education planning in the reform process of the education system. A differentiation of model experiments has emerged in the case of economic model experiments: model experiments as (1) fundamental preparation of political decisions that are still pending, (2) testing of the content-related organizational implementation of educational policy decisions that have already been made, and (3) strategy for the implementation of educational planning measures (Holz 1977, 303). The changed function of pilot projects and the consequences for a transfer concept: (1) School and society are fundamentally characterized by an experimental attitude: the given is increasingly questioned by the majority. (2) The conditions created in the pilot projects can be documented, evaluated, and presented with the aim of transferability through scientific monitoring. (3) Such a system can also emerge because all important school experiments are increasingly being conducted as model experiments: The promotion of school experiments as model experiments can take place at short notice, without waiting times and complicated administrative barriers. (4) The different school conditions in Germany’s federal states are gradually being brought closer together through pilot projects. (5) Intended changes in education do not take place according to the model of the scientific experiment: The established forms of model experiments should be promoted, but they must not continue to be designated as “experiments.”