P RIOR L EARNING A SSESSMENT Credit for Learning, Not Experience

CAEL S TANDARDS The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning states that “Credit … should be awarded only for learning, and not for experience.”* The difference between experience and learning is important. *Taken from Assessing Learning: Standards, Principles, and Procedures (Second Edition) by Morry Fiddler, Catherine Marienau, and Urban Whitaker, Chicago, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

E XPERIENCE VS. L EARNING : B USINESS C OMMUNICATIONS EXAMPLE Writing business s and letters Communicating with customers on the telephone Writing quarterly reports Using standard formats that your company provides Understanding your audience and tailoring your s, letters, phone calls to their needs Determining the best means of communication in particular situations Understanding the reasons underlying your communication decisions ExperienceLearning

E XPERIENCE VS. L EARNING : M ANAGEMENT EXAMPLE Supervising staff Leading meetings Prioritizing project initiatives Training others Dealing with personnel issues Doing performance appraisals Understanding your own and others’ management styles and how they influence an organization Understanding how to gather and use data to prioritize initiatives and make decisions Understanding the importance of employee development ExperienceLearning

E XPERIENCE Experience deals with “doing.” Experience is often concrete: writing s, dealing with employees, making decisions. Experience may or may not result in learning, depending on the experience and on the learner (e.g., volunteering to call people as part of a fund drive is important, but may or may not result in learning) Experience, though, is the basis of much of adults’ learning.

L EARNING The word “understanding” appeared frequently in the examples of learning. Learning means that you understand why you’re doing things in a certain way. You might discern a pattern in what you’re doing and extract a general principle, or theory. Learning means that you can apply or transfer that understanding or theory to different scenarios, more than just understanding the way things are done in your own situation.

C ONSIDER YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE & LEARNING It’s easiest to start with your experience. Identify what you have done in a particular area. Then think about what you have learned from what you’ve done. Make charts, lists, diagrams, etc. to help you think about your experience that has resulted in learning.