ENIC Network (Council of Europe/UNESCO)
NARIC Network (European Commission)
8th joint meeting
University of Latvia, Riga, 3 - 5 June 2001

Item 10
OTHER FORMS OF ASSESSMENT

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Strasbourg/Bucuresti/Bruxelles, 24 January 2001
Orig. Eng.
DGIV/EDU/HE (2001) 18
ED-2001/UNESCO-CEPES/ENIC.8/7
COM 6/01-7

Background

In the very near future the NARICs and ENICs will be confronted with an increasing number of applications for the recognition or assessment of non-traditional learning and qualifications. This is the result of developments in teaching and learning in European higher education as well as secondary education (for access qualifications). The traditional classroom teaching will be supplemented by other, non-formal, forms of delivery and types of education, offered by various educational providers. More and more education will be delivered through

• the internet
• transnational arrangements
• a combination of traditional and non-traditional learning
• the recognition of various kinds of prior learning, including work based and technology based learning.

In the concept of Lifelong Learning, non-traditional learning will be developed for and provided to all generations of students. A major target group is that of graduated professionals, who need to upgrade, deepen or broaden their competencies in a specific field, and who are very well prepared to pay or to mobilise substantial fees.

It is to be expected that this concept of Lifelong Learning will become an important part of the strategy and mission of higher education. This requires substantial rethinking of the way qualifications are earned and recognized. The concept of learning paths will have to be added to the concept of study programmes: rather than talking about non-traditional qualifications, the aim will be to develop alternative paths to a common set of qualifications and to assess these qualifications on the strength of the skills and competencies they convey rather than on the way in which the qualifications were earned.

The developments mentioned lead in the direction of putting more emphasis on assessing competencies rather than the formal qualifications and the way they have been earned.

This is not to say that this aspect is absent today. In fact, there have already been encouraging developments in this direction. For example, work is under way in the Netherlands (e.g. through the ACCEPT project of Nuffic (the Dutch NARIC/ENIC), Sweden and the United Kingdom. The European Language Portfolio, developed by the Council of Europe’s Modern Languages Division, provides a framework for the description of foreign language skills. Future versions of ECTS are also likely to emphasize learning outcomes more strongly.

In this respect it is relevant to mention that the European Commission has subsidized a NARIC pilot project for the assessment of foreign teachers in the Netherlands as part of the ACCEPT project of the Dutch NARIC/ENIC mentioned (see below).

However, this development will need to be taken further. Learning outcomes describe the more or less traditional objectives of the curriculum or the educational process, whereas competencies describe the actual skills and abilities of the person concerned, regardless of whether these have been acquired through formal education programmes, informal learning or even work experience. Methods and procedures must be developed that allow learning outcomes and competencies to be described and compared.

In the final report of the ENIC Working Party on recognition issues in the Bologna process it is suggested that the ENIC and NARIC Networks should develop methods and procedures of assessing qualifications earned through alternative learning paths on the strength of the skills and competencies they convey. They should, in cooperation with national quality assurance agencies, develop international standards for the assessment and recognition of competencies, as well as ways in which adequate information may be provided in this area.

The ENIC and NARIC Networks should seek contacts with other relevant players in the field, such as professional organisations, employers and assessment agencies (both working for academic and professional purposes).

Changing the focus of International Credential Evaluation

Several terms are used to refer to different kinds of learning. For example the European Commission (2000) uses the terms non-formal and informal learning to refer to the different kinds of learning that can take place outside of the classroom.

In the United Kingdom the generic term accreditation of prior learning (APL) refers to the assessment and accreditation of any form of learning that has taken place in the context of either formal or informal education or during work itself. There are two types of prior learning: prior certificated learning and prior experiential learning.

• Accreditation of prior certificated learning (APCL) refers to the assessment and accreditation of learning that has been formally assessed by a recognized or accredited educational institution (Anglia Polytechnic University, 1999).
• Accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) refers to the assessment and accreditation of learning (e.g. through self-study, workshops, course attendance) that either has not been assessed or has been assessed by an educational institution that is not formally recognized or accredited. This includes learning acquired on the job as well as learning acquired through workshops or courses offered by non-accredited private institutions or providers of on-line distance education (Anglia Polytechnic University, 1999).

International credential evaluation in its current practice is part of the accreditation of prior certificated learning (APCL). Credit is given for prior learning that has been certified by a recognized or accredited higher education institution abroad.

In the Netherlands a more generic term is used to refer to different kinds of learning, Erkennen van eerder verworven competenties (EVC), which roughly translated means ‘recognition of previously developed competencies’. These competencies can be developed in formal educational study programmes, but also during employment, on-the-job-training, self study, or through leisure time activities, in other words, ‘throughout life’.

In this paper we will use the term APL.

The main purpose of APL is to give insight in the knowledge and skills that have been developed in different settings and to compare these with the standards of recognized national educational qualifications so that the previous learning becomes transparent for admission officers and/or employers. For that reason, the assessment standards of APL instruments have often been derived from national qualifications structures, study programme objectives or job profiles. More and more, these standards are being defined in terms of competencies, which makes assessment independent of learning path easier. As a result, alternative assessment instruments, such as portfolio assessment, interviews, simulation assignments, authentic assessment, direct observation and self-assessment are also gaining ground in formal educational school systems. This enhances the acceptability of the APL instruments and its outcomes.

The APL procedures are used for academic as well as professional purposes. In practice, it appears that the distinction between academic and professional purposes is not always clear-cut. Some projects are aimed at increasing the number of students in a specific study programme in order to cope with future labour shortages in that field. International credential evaluators evaluate academic qualifications also for the purpose of admission to further study (academic recognition) or work (professional recognition).

Figure 1: Current focus of International Credential Evaluation

It is, however, no longer realistic to continue to restrict official recognition decisions to formal diplomas. The focus of evaluation needs to change from a person’s formal qualification or degree to the competencies the person has acquired in all the learning

situations he or she has experienced (e.g. work, private education, self-study and/or course attendance). For international credential evaluators it is of utmost importance to know which alternative forms of recognition there are and how they work. Existing APL projects can help to develop a methodology and procedures that will change the focus of credential evaluation and that will contribute to the implementation of Lifelong Learning.

A pilot project: Flexible recruitment of foreign teachers

In 1999 the Dutch ENIC/NARIC initiated a project called Accreditation of Competencies in Education, Professional Training and Employment (ACCEPT). The aim of this project is to expand the method of international credential evaluation so that it can also deal with competencies acquired through a variety of means. In 2000 a NARIC pilot project was carried out in order to test a first prototypical model for the assessment and accreditation of competencies of foreign professionals who wish to take up their profession in another country. It is the first project in its kind in the framework of the NARIC network and could function as a first step in the development of a new assessment methodology & procedures: Accreditation of prior learning: Flexible recruitment of foreign teachers.

The pilot focused on secondary-school teachers in The Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Education project, ‘flexible recruitment of primary- and secondary-school teachers,’ was taken as an example to foster the acceptability (nationally and internationally) of the assessment procedure and to give the outcome of the assessment a more recognized and accepted status for those in the teaching profession.

The assessment procedure consisted of the following steps: a) intake interview, b) portfolio assessment; c) assessment task which consisted of a planning interview, the observation of a pilot lesson, and a reflection interview, and d) the final decision.
Nuffic worked together with EDUCOM assessment centre which is a collaboration initiative between the teacher training faculties of the university of professional education in Rotterdam (Hogeschool Rotterdam en Omstreken, HRO) and the university of Leiden (ICLON). The Dutch ENIC/NARIC initiated the project and was responsible for the organizational aspects, while EDUCOM was responsible for the assessment of the candidates.

The NARIC pilot project was a small-scale project that primarily aimed to gather empirical data on the validity, reliability and (inter)national acceptability of an alternative assessment procedure focusing on the assessment of competencies developed in both formal and informal learning settings. After a strict selection procedure six candidates from six different countries participated. The subjects they wanted to teach were: mathematics (2), English, music, fine arts, and social studies. An important conclusion of the assessment procedure is that the national assessment procedure needs specific modifications in order to be appropriate for the assessment of competencies acquired in different national or cultural settings.

The NARIC pilot project was extremely useful in the sense that the Dutch NARIC and its partners gained experience with the assessment of foreign teachers who wish to take up their profession in the Netherlands, a new and very important target group. A number of problems were encountered and valuable information was gathered on how the assessment procedure, including its assessment instruments, could be improved. Problems which came to light, such as insufficient Dutch language proficiency for teaching purposes, the ability of the candidates to reflect on their formal learning experiences and the unfamiliarity of the candidates with the Dutch pedagogical approach and educational system, have led to a number suggestions for improvement of the assessment procedure and the assessment instruments. One suggestion was suggested to include additional selection criteria to address the problem of language proficiency. An additional suggestion was to provide an orientation phase in order to familiarise the candidates with the Dutch educational system, including the pedagogical approach. This orientation phase might also include a language course that is focused on teaching jargon.

Continuing research

Individual ENICc/NARICs will continue their work on the development of new forms of assessment for international credential evaluation. But to make it successful it is imperative that such projects have the support of the NARIC and ENIC networks, and that at least more individual ENICs and NARICs will participate in the projects.

Action: advice to the ENIC Bureau, the NARIC Advisory Board and the Secretariats for further action

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