Recognition and Validation of Experiential Learning. An educational problem.

This text focuses on the issue of Recognition and Validation of the Experiential Learning of Adults from an educational perspective. These new practices fit into an Lifelong Learning paradigm, in which value is given to the formal and non-formal learning of adults throughout their personal, social and professional lives. Drawing from the theoretical and conceptual support found in learning approaches and adult education, these emerging practices are, nonetheless, a site for tension and contradiction and, furthermore, from an educational point of view, are under-researched. In this text, a brief analysis of the main concepts, assumptions and underlying principles are presented – what is recognised and validated, how recognition and validation are carried out, what logics are found -, with a final reflection on the training of the professionals of the recognition and validation processes – teachers, trainers, advisers, supervisors – and on the need for a (new) reflection in view of the new educational reference frameworks.