A rapidly developing approach around the world, the recognition of prior learning (RPL) is the practice of acknowledging the knowledge and skills that people have acquired formally, non-formally and informally, through work and life experience, training programs, community activities as well as through unaccredited periods of formal learning. It is used in post-secondary education and training contexts for admissions and/or advanced standing, as well as in workforce development and for occupational and professional certification. Since the mid-1990s, many governments around the world have clos
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A rapidly developing approach around the world, the recognition of prior learning (RPL) is the practice of acknowledging the knowledge and skills that people have acquired formally, non-formally and informally, through work and life experience, training programs, community activities as well as through unaccredited periods of formal learning. It is used in post-secondary education and training contexts for admissions and/or advanced standing, as well as in workforce development and for occupational and professional certification. Since the mid-1990s, many governments around the world have closely linked RPL with national qualification frameworks and lifelong learning policies. This volume is an authoritative, up-to-date overview of international research practice in RPL aimed at researchers, policy-makers, postgraduate students and practitioners in education and other professional fields, especially those concerned with access, widening participation and work-based learning. It provides a comprehensive account of current research in the UK, Canada, Sweden, Australia, South Africa, the USA and other EU and OECD countries. Scholars from each country or jurisdiction were invited to address key questions: Who is doing research? How are they doing it, and why? What questions are being asked? The book is designed to consolidate international approaches and identify research gaps, possibilities and emerging questions to support the development of innovative research and scholarship into the theory and practice of RPL over the next decade, this book lays the groundwork for the development of RPL as a community of scholarship.
Published summary.
The chapters are as follows: Introduction and overview of chapters / Judy Harris and Christine Wihak; Australia: an overview of 20 years of research into the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) / Roslyn Cameron; Canada: a typology of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) research in context / Joy Van Kleef; Quebec: an overview of RAC/RPLC research since 2002 / Rachel Belisle; England: Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) research in higher education / Helen Pokorny; European Union: research and system building in the Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning (VNFIL) / Judy Harris; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): research reveals ‘islands of good practice’ / Patrick Werquin and Christine Wihak; Scotland: Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) research within a national credit and qualifications framework / Ruth Whittaker; South Africa: research reflecting critically on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) research and practice / Mignonne Breier; Sweden: the developing field of Validation research / Per Andersson and Andreas Fejes; United States of America: Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) research in colleges and universities / Nan L. Travers; Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) and the teaching-research nexus in universities / Angelina Wong; Research into Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) in university adult education programmes in Canada / Christine Wihak and Angelina Wong; Endword: reflections on research for an emergent field / Norm Friesen.
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