This guide describes the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology's (SIAST's) (Canada) Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) program. PLAR is an evaluation through a valid and reliable process of the knowledge and skills a student has learned through previous education, training, or experience, to determine the…

Purpose--Sociocultural learning theories, usually premised on participation in some community, explain workplace learning well up to a certain extent. The paper aims to extend beyond these and to account for learning in repetitive and mundane work environments from a dialectical perspective. Design/methodology/approach--Based on a longitudinal…

This paper: (1) reviews the goals and directions of United States marine education; (2) reports the findings of three surveys which were designed to provide a perspective on current Canadian efforts in marine education; and (3) presents a set of proposed goals and future directions for marine education in Canada. Federal agencies with a…

A research project was conducted to determine how and what clown-doctors know on entry to the profession and how and what they learn both formally and informally in a hospital environment; the linkages between informal and formal learning in clown-doctor training and practice in Canada; and "best practices." Information was gathered…

Informal learning environments compel the design of activities that are both appealing and educational. This paper addresses issues involved in the design of science television programs for preadolescents, drawing more specifically on the case of a French-language series currently in production in Montreal. The program goals and format are…

The extent and distribution of self-reported learning activities in the current Canadian adult population was estimated on the basis of data collected during a 1998 telephone survey of a sample of 1,562 Canadian adults. Random digital dialing was used to give all provinces, households, and individuals within households an equal chance of…

Discusses the philosophical underpinnings of Canadian adventure education and offers a description of outdoor adventure education in Canada. (Contains 20 references.) (DDR)

Contrary to pervasive assumptions about the need for lifelong learning, U.S. and Canadian adults' collective learning efforts far outpace workplace requirements. Underemployment has several dimensions: the talent-use gap, structural unemployment, involuntary reduced employment, credential gap, performance gap, and subjective underemployment.…

Reported are the results of a study at the Royal British Columbia Museum where an interactive computer program, "Explore the Seashore," was added to an exhibit to test its effects on visitor enjoyment and learning. Details of the presentation and structure of the hypercard media are presented. (CW)

Reports a study which examined the ability of adult immigrants to communicate as they were completing a 30-week, 900-hour second language program and then again six months later. Two cohorts of learners were interviewed: one comprised of immigrants from Southeast Asia and the other of Poles and Latin Americans. (Author/SED)

What role can online communities play in meeting the informal learning needs of a professional association? This article presents the results of an interpretive study of the experiences of coordinators of Alberta Community Adult Learning Councils who participated in an online community of practice designed to support informal workplace learning.…

Western European forms of discourse have been foisted upon the world as the universal value-neutral reference point. External standards have been used to assess aboriginal discourse, particularly in public contexts such as schools and courtrooms. These standards assume that there is one single correct way to proceed (to talk, write, argue, teach),…

Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in…

This paper on adult informal learning is divided into four sections. Section 1 examines different conceptions of informal learning and the issues and limitations associated with alternative definitions of informal learning. Section 2 is a review of empirical research on the estimated extent, role, and outcomes of informal learning and posited…

A study explored informal learning in relation to online communications and working class people's use of computers as a socially situated practice rooted in collective, communal relationships. It drew on analysis of online learning workshop participation in specially initiated sessions among Canadian labor activist/educators. Findings were based…