ABSTRACT
‘Experience’ is the cornerstone concept in adult learning. Taking into account the learner’s experience when conceiving a training/educational programme: it was the major revolution that some educationalists specialised in adult learning attempted to undergo in the fields of learning and training. This conceptual revolution implied an interest in the process of experiential learning, leading to the recognition of informal learning in higher education, new pedagogical approaches to the university continuing education courses, etc. Inspired by the seminal works of those educationalists and since the 1970s, numerous universities have implemented huge reforms to offer adult learners the opportunity to follow university programmes, based on the principle of taking into account their ‘experience’. In particular, the recognition of prior learning (RPL) was thought an efficient way to somehow adapt the university programmes to the features of the adult learners (see Maes et al. 2014).
