This paper reviews the history of the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, created in 1972 to meet the growing need for skilled child care workers to provide quality programs for young children in the United States. A pilot program was launched in 1974, leading to the granting of CDA credentials in 1975. Since 1976 over 60,000 CDA…

Adults often prefer self-directed learning over teacher-directed, classroom-oriented learning. They feel that their life experiences and self-initiated projects teach them more than they can learn in a formal classroom situation. Persons usually do not pursue such self-directed learning, however, because of conflicting role requirements, a lack of…

Analyzes recent occupational data and suggests that postsecondary educational credentials have varied effects on early-labor-force outcomes. Some credentials have greater value in the labor force than does an associate's degree, and their effects often differ for young men and for young women. Argues that this important data has often been…

Adults learn from many sources, such as volunteer work, community services, homemaking, jobs, and other activities, and they increasingly want this learning to be recognized so that they can reenter the job market, get a promotion, or return to college. Therefore, scientific methods have been developed to help adults document their experiential…

Educational institutions need to help women get a better education by taking into account the learning they have acquired through experience in homemaking, volunteer work, and other activities. This paper examines the need for recognition of women's prior learning by educational institutions and delves into some of the intricacies of the process.…

The history of post secondary education in the U.S., and the role of experiential learning in its improvement are discussed. Topics of discussion include: the relationship of experiential learning to individuals' information processing, the need to clarify objectives, and the potential effect of new educational objectives on teaching and…

A model for assessing and awarding credit for prior experiential learning is presented; the adult student's experiences are summarized in a portfolio. The model incorporates eight stages: facilitating the construction and assessment of a portfolio, identifying significant prior experiences, expressing the learning outcomes of prior experiences,…

This student guide is directed at the adult student who petitions for college credits based on prior experiential learning. It will assist such adults in maximizing the value of their prior experiences in relation to educational goals and successfully obtaining appropriate credit. The reader is led step by step through the process of identifying…

Metropolitan State University, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, is a competence-based, baccalaureate-degree-granting institution created in 1971 to serve adults. The Operational Models Project was designed to improve the university's program for assessing experiential learning. Specific purposes of the project were: (1) to describe a program for…