Abstract:

Recognition of the knowledge gained through informal and non-formal education is one of the key aspects of higher education in Poland. This issue is of interest to the European institutions for many years. There are no procedures, and legal developments in this field in Poland. Although non-formal education is largely autonomous matter of each country, it also has its European level. European institutions are actively working to develop transnational standards of conduct in education, which could stimulate sectors of formal and informal learning. The purpose of this article is to present the organizational model of informal and non-formal recognition of learning outcomes. The research project was carried out two empirical studies to determine the needs and possibilities of implementation in Poland recognition of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal learning in higher education. The first one was a survey conducted among students of management, and the other one was the focus group interview conducted among candidates for higher education. The study also extended interviews with experts and employers. The main objective of this study was to develop and implement a comprehensive model of the recognition of the effects of non-formal and informal learning in higher education, including the legal, organizational and tool model. Organizational model provides a description of the procedure of recognition of learning outcomes for university candidates on the basis of the available and documented learning outcomes (in the case of non-formal) and/or declared/notified (in the case of non-formal education). The description of the organizational procedure of recognition presented in the article attempts the necessary sequence of actions under this procedure. This characteristic allows to arranging the whole process and an indication of the organizational units responsible for the implementation of the various stages in the model. There are also presented a proposal documents that should be developed, made or issued at different stages of the process. Key Words: Knowledge Recognition, Learning Outcomes, Organizational Model, Non-Formal and Informal Learning.

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