In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Toronto Police Service was exploring how to increase access to higher education to its officers. The service saw higher education as salient to its organizational imperatives of professionalization, increased public legitimacy and credibility, and enhanced academic recognition of police professional learning.…

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) initiated a series of surveys designed to capture member institutional practice snapshots in 60 seconds or less. The December 2014 "AACRAO 60 Second Survey" asked respondents to indicate their institutions' credit for prior learning practices (CPL). To…

Prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) is the practice of reviewing, evaluating, and acknowledging the information, skills, and understanding that adult learners have gained through experiential or self-directed (informal) learning rather than through formal education (Thomas, 2000). As our current economy and workplaces experience rapid…

Despite claims that prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) can act as a transformative social mechanism and a means of social inclusion, this study reports that PLAR has become a serious barrier to adult learning rather than a facilitator. Drawing from Foucault's concept of governmentality, the study examines the difficulties that…

This paper features several articles previously published in the CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning) Forum and News, an e-newsletter CAEL regularly shares with its members. This publication includes a summary of the data gathered in CAEL's 2006 institutional survey on PLA (Prior Learning Assessment), results of a research on…

People learn in many different ways and in many different places. What is learned informally or experientially is often the same or similar to what may be learned in traditional formal learning environments. There are many reasons why recognizing experiential learning is viable educational option, more so in today's economy than ever before. Prior…

Investigated whether beginning adult learners, given auditory stimuli, were equally likely to represent French gender subclasses using phonological, morphosyntactic, and/or semantic representations. Data from adult English speakers learning patterned French and translation equivalent lists indicated that the construct of input for gender learning…

This report and the companion backgrounder "Supporting Persons with Disabilities in Post-Secondary Education" represents the work of the "Foundational Learning and Diversity" sub-committee. Within the larger context and framework of "A Learning Alberta," the sub-committee focused on identifying priorities for…

This project is building on site-specific qualitative data to develop a profile of adult learning activity now largely unrecognized by education providers. It explores the various learning strategies used by adults in these three locations: unionized factory, community-based training program, and literacy program. At a half-way point in a two-year…

The Skills and Knowledge Profile (SKP) is a tool developed in Canada to document learning styles and strategies of adult learners. The instrument was developed as a systematic approach to capturing the learning styles of unemployed and employed adults across sectors. It is made up of these six sections: (1) Learning Access and Personal…

This document analyzes main issues concerning adult learning and policy responses in Canada. Section 1 introduces a background report (available separately), discussions with stakeholders, and site visits. Section 2 addresses the general context of adult education (AE). Sections 3-6 cover four themes that structure the Thematic Review of Adult…

The New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL) project is a Canada-wide 5-year research initiative during which more than 70 academic and community members are working collaboratively within a framework of informal learning to address the following issues: informal computer-based learning, recognition of prior learning, informal learning in a…

In 1999, the Committee on Lifelong Learning of the Ministry of Learning in Alberta, Canada, conducted a series of consultations on lifelong learning to identify ways of helping adults return to learning to improve their employment potential and realize their career goals. The committee received input from more than 450 Albertans in 14 rural and…

These proceedings on the theme, Adult Education Research: Shaping the Future, contain 52 papers. The papers are: "Virtual Adult Education" (W. Archer and D. Conrad); "Reversal Theory Approach to Adult Learning and Education" (M. Atleo); "Objectiver L'Action" (A. Balleux et al.); "Cultural Constructions of…

This document contains 20 papers on the fundamentals of adult education and foundations, practices, and issues for lifelong learning. The following papers are included: "The Metamorphoses of Andragogy" (James A. Draper); "Stages in the Development of Canadian Adult Education" (Gordon Selman); "Philosophical…