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Lessons in Learning: Can workplace learning create healthier employees?
Although workplace learning is usually associated with skills training designed to improve productivity, workplace wellness programs have achieved improvements in workers’ performance. Can workplace wellness programs actually improve employees’ health and well-being, while they enhance an organization’s bottom line? Read the article »
CCL invited to share Composite Learning Index at OECD
The Organizations for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) and the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning have invited the Canadian Council on Learning to Italy this summer to talk about the complex and challenging task of developing the Composite Learning Index, a measure for lifelong learning in Canada.
The first annual Composite Learning Index will be released on May 15, 2006. (More information on the index)
In mid-June, members of the CCL team developing the index will travel to participate in “Measuring Well-being and Societal Progress,” a workshop in Milan, Italy. The main focus of the event is to address the challenges involved in building “comprehensive measures of well-being, and on the specific role that education plays in well-being.”
The workshop is one in a series of OECD events organized under a project called “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy.” This project is a worldwide endeavour to develop the best ways to measure the progress of societies and improve the connection between statistics and policy decisions.
Reminder: Request for proposals on work and learning
CCL is seeking applied research projects that examine workplace learning in various contexts, including paid and unpaid work environments and formal and informal learning.
Community-based organizations, businesses, labour, as well as research and academic institutions are all invited to submit project proposals that address one or more of the following themes: the quantity, quality and effectiveness of work-related learning; access to workplace learning; and work and education.
Read the request for proposals to learn about the evaluation and format criteria, as well as the Costing Memorandum and the Intellectual Property Memorandum. Fill out the Cover Sheet and submit your proposal in electronic format as a PDF or Microsoft Word document to Douglas MacLeod by midnight April 24, 2006 EDT.
State of the field review identifies lack of research on PLAR
A state of the field review commissioned by CCL found that a lack of information hinders the widespread uptake of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) for learners who could benefit from PLAR in secondary, post-secondary and work settings. It also identified a lack of research on PLAR.
PLAR is a practice that consists of reviewing, evaluating and acknowledging the information, skills and understanding that adults gain through experience, work, classes and workshops.
The review was directed by Dr. Christine Wihak, an assistant professor with Workplace and Adult Learning at the University of Calgary. To complete this study, Dr. Wihak examined over 175 sources produced from 2000 to 2005 and conducted interviews with known Canadian experts in the PLAR field.
Although a widespread practice in many countries worldwide, PLAR is not as widely used in Canada. Many adult learners are not aware of its existence. PLAR is more prevalent in community college settings than at the secondary or university levels, but the overall number of learners using PLAR remains low across the country.
Indicators of passion: a web-log entry about the Composite Learning Index
This blog was written by Marc Lachance, who is up to his eyeballs in preparations for the upcoming release of CCL’s Composite Learning Index. It begins:
“I was so deeply involved in my work on the index that I couldn’t imagine it was a mistake. It didn’t even cross my mind.”
Adult Learning Knowledge Centre speaks out!
The Adult Learning Knowledge Centre is pleased to announce Dr. Mechthild Hart as the first speaker in the Adult Learning 2006 Speakers Series. Dr. Hart has published extensively on the issue of labour related to family and social life, with special emphasis on local, regional, and global approaches to work done by mothers. Dr. Hart is the keynote speaker at the 2006 Atlantic regional conference of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE). Her talk—Moving Across the Topography of Globalization: Where do we ground a trans-national Politics of Education?—takes place Friday, March 31, at 10:30 a.m. at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. The talk is free of charge and is open to the public.
The Adult Learning Speakers Series is a series of speaker events held in various communities throughout Atlantic Canada in 2006. The speaker events will present information on contemporary issues related to adult learning. For more information, please see the Call for Speakers.
Dr. Kathleen Flanagan, the coordinator of CCL’s Adult Learning Knowledge Centre, will present a paper at the CASAE regional conference. The conference theme is Research in Action, and links theory, research, and practice in the diverse field of adult education. Dr. Flanagan’s paper, titled “A Snapshot of the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre,” will be presented on Saturday, April 1, 11:30 a.m. in the Seton Academic Centre, at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.
On April 20, Dr. Flanagan will speak at the 2006 Spring Forum of the Atlantic Provinces Association of Continuing University Education (APACUE). Her talk will take place at 3:00 p.m. at the Haliburton Inn in Halifax.
Adult Learning Knowledge Centre puts knowledge exchange to action
Sixteen new action projects are underway, with support from the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre. They were selected in response to a call, put out in February 2006, asking for knowledge exchange projects. With this call, the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre chose to focus on small, innovative initiatives with short timelines. Proposals were received from every province in Canada.
The selected projects are all community-based, and provide opportunities for new partnerships between educators and researchers. Most will be completed by early May. The projects are:
For more information, please read the short descriptions of the projects.
Reminder: Help create international measures for early childhood development
You are invited to an international conference that will explore outcomes of early childhood development, how they are reported and how that information can be used by communities and governments around the globe.
The Measuring Early Child Development conference, co-sponsored by the Canadian Council on Learning, the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and hosted by the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development, will take place April 26-28, 2006, in Vaudreuil, Quebec.
Leaders in early childhood evaluation, including academics and policy-makers from five continents, will meet with the goal of developing a network that will create internationally comparable reporting measures.
When:
April 26-28, 2006
Where:
Château Vaudreuil21700 Trans-Canada HighwayVaudreuil-Dorion (Québec)J7V 8P3Canada
The preliminary program, registration form and other information are available at the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development.
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