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Alan Tough broke the news! Dozens of educational researchers replicated
the findings. The eminently believable Opinion Research Corporation of
America and the American Council on Education legitimized it all. Newspapers
across the nation and respected educational journals communicated the revelations
that America is indeed a nation of lifelong learners.
Alan
Tough's findings about adult learning (1978) were especially revealing.
The data substantiated the claim made by Ivan Illich in Deschooling Society
that "We have all learned most what we know outside of school. Pupils do
most of their learning without, and often despite, their teachers" (1970).
The Tough data substantiates that most Americans, regardless of race, sex
or socioeconomic level, have made that choice, and the choice is affirmation
of learning as an integral life pursuit.
The
findings from Tough's in-depth, random interviews indicate the following
learning patterns over a twelve month period:
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Ninety
percent of all adults conduct at least one major learning activity a year.
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The average
learner conducts five distinct learning projects a year.
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The average
amount of time spent per learning project is 100 hours (the average learner
spends 500 hours per year engaged in learning projects).
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Seventy-three
percent of all learning projects are self guided.
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Only 17
percent of the learning is professionally guided (by proprietary schools,
colleges, or company in-service programs.
Tough
concludes that in this country there is a pervasive learning myth or stereotype
which suggests that most learning is classroom based and institutionally
supervised. The fact is that learning - self directed, independent, experiential
learning - is something quite integral to life in this century.
The
learning which Tough addresses, which is by-and-large acquired through
non college experiences prior to entering or returning to college or a
university, is called prior experiential learning. For many people it is
learning which is critical to personal development and/or work competency.
It is learning which emanates from interaction with others, attempting
to come to right answers, and a host of other possibilities related to
one's life/work pursuits.
As
Tough affirms, what adults have learned is often due, not to a traditional
university education but rather to work experience, family management,
travel, attendance at workshops and conferences, volunteer work, industrial
and public sector in-service programs, adult or continuing education instruction,
or self initiated study and reading. Northern Virginia Community College
is in the vanguard of perfecting a system for validating prior learning
and for granting credit for what adult students already know, and integral
to that process is the Portfolio Development course.
In
1987, the American Council on Education issued an official statement recommending
that all post secondary educational institutions develop policies and implement
procedures both for measuring and for awarding credit for learning attained
through work and life experiences. The Council on Post Secondary Accreditation
endorsed this recommendation. This kind of national support and endorsement
has encouraged hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States
to implement programs such as NVCC's PLACE Program and now well over half
of the post secondary institutions in the country have life experience
credit granting opportunities.
For
many years, for the overwhelming majority of colleges and universities,
credit hours have been a kind of "currency" that symbolize verified, college
equivalent learning since high school (note: significant college level
learning resulting from non classroom experience while enrolled in high
school may be considered for academic recognition). A degree is granted
when you have accumulated some quantity of this currency in certain course
areas. The problem with this is addressed by Harold Taylor:
I had
no idea what academic credits were, except that three of them were awarded
for spending fifteen weeks, three times a week, with one separate discussion
session each week, in my classes in philosophy. After suitable inquiries
I learned that academic credits had originally been invented to handle
the problem of fitting the student into the proper level of study in a
college to which he might transfer, and that other than this bookkeeping
function, on the basis of which a degree could eventually be granted, academic
credits had no educational use." (1975, p.ix).
Taylor's
point is well taken, yet we cannot ignore the fact that this "currency"
still has powerful social and economic values in our society. So let us
examine how prior learning from experience can be converted into credit
toward degree requirements.
Northern
Virginia Community College does not award credit for experience alone.
Credit is granted for verifiable learning growing out of experience. In
other words, credit will be granted for the learning, either knowledge
or skills, acquired during a non college experience, not for the experience
itself. For example, Joe has had ten years of experience as a salesman.
He will not be awarded credit on the basis of ten years of selling experience,
but on the basis of his ability to demonstrate what he had learned about
salesmanship. The reason for this is that Joe may have learned very little
after the first year. It could be that he has not had ten years of learning
but rather one year repeated ten times. Remember you are to identify the
learning outcomes of the experience.
At
Northern Virginia Community College, credit for prior learning may take
one of two forms. If the learning has direct linkage to an existing NVCC
course (e.g., marketing competency to some existing marketing course),
direct course credit may be granted through the portfolio development process
or credit may be granted through the more traditional form of challenge
tests such as CLEP (College Level Examination Program) and DANTES. (Each
student should obtain a copy of NVCC's "College Credit Through Advanced
Standing" booklet which delineates the College's policies for awarding
advanced standing credits.)
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