An action research method using an action-reflection spiral of development and implementation was used to create a system for accrediting prior learning in nursing education. Key stages of the system are information, advice and guidance, preparation of the claim, and assessment. (SK)

Analyzes Canadian labor education courses and materials in terms of types of training, participants, instructors' objectives, and criteria for success. Concludes that labor education is preparing union members to participate in union and community affairs through the acquisition of transferable skills. (SK)

Describes a study that focused on 21 graduate students enrolled in a hypermedia in education class who constructed concept maps on the term hypermedia. The purpose of the study was to determine whether students created concept maps differently based on their Kolb learning styles and levels of hypermedia knowledge. (Author/LRW)

Results of a study of 120 college students indicated that those who had relevant prior experience with Internet communication technologies had the most favorable perceptions of the usefulness of these technologies and were most apt to use them. Experience and perceived usefulness were the strongest predictors of intent to use them. (Contains 23…

Methods for assessing nonformal learning must have a strong legal and legitimate basis. Institutional design and acceptance of value hinge on these methods. The strength of new assessment approaches will be defined by their ability to provide information. (SK)

An individual differences model of learning from instructional text was tested with 211 Air Force recruits. Results strongly supported the model, which suggests that learning from text is determined by making connections among ideas that include the text and prior learning. Making the connections depends on individual differences. (SLD)

The Adult Returners Key Skills project uses a series of teaching/learning packs to develop key skills (information technology, communications, numeracy, active citizenship). The packs help reentry students become aware of their existing abilities and prior learning experiences. (SK)

Approaches to learner accreditation form a continuum ranging from institutions determining outcomes and content to empowerment of learners to use their own learning from experience in a way that meets their definition of what is credit worthy. (SK)

Examination of transformative discourse in South African worker education 1970-2000 shows early links to emancipatory education; a shift to human capital discourse in the 1990s; and changing understanding of how and where knowledge is produced, the kinds of knowledge valued, the social purpose of education, and the meaning of worker experience for…

Employing organizations are the main beneficiaries of accreditation of work-based learning. Universities involved in providing it need to safeguard the interests of learners and society from exploitation. Work-based learning needs to be viewed beyond the narrow skills and competencies approach, recognizing and valuing practical judgment in job…

Fifty older and 50 younger adults with varying familiarity with standard keyboards performed 3 trials with the Dvorak keyboard. Older participants performed worse, but there was no relationship between age and familiarity. The amount of new information and not preexperimental interference from prior knowledge may account for age differences. (SK)

Compared two different guided questioning strategies and unguided questioning and assessed the knowledge construction of 48 fourth and fifth graders in the questioning conditions. Results support the conclusion that questions designed to access prior knowledge and experience are more effective in enhancing learning than questions simply designed…

Explains an educational framegame called Information Basketball for adult or teen players that can be used as a review or informal group testing of previously learned materials. Includes a question set example and discusses debriefing, including sample debriefing questions. (LRW)

The facilitative effect of expertise in hypertext information retrieval (IR) tasks has been widely reported in related literature. However, recent theories of human expertise question the robustness of this result, since previous works have not fully considered the interaction between user and system characteristics. In this study, the constraint…

Students bring a variety of experiences and prior learning with media to the classroom. And, when learning is described from a number of different theories of learning, it is these experiences on which students will construct their new learning. For today's learners, these experiences, although varied, are very likely to include experiences…