his study established a model that positions prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) within the field of adult education by linking professional practice to adult learning theories that are aligned with PLAR. The context for the model's application was colleges and universities. In this study, adult educators are persons who educate adults, including faculty in postsecondary institutions. The model is a response to a perceived lack of cohesion in adult educators' conceptual understandings of PLAR and its position within the field and is intended to support the efforts of postsecondary institutions that choose to offer PLAR services. A literature review and an analysis of formal theoretical perspectives related to adult learning have been used to build upon a prior model for aligning educational theory and practice. The new model portrays practitioners' basic beliefs, selected theoretical concepts, professional practice, and assessment materials and practices as interacting within a permeable boundary with societal forces.

The study concludes that greater conceptual cohesion can be achieved by constructing a relationship between the basic beliefs that ground PLAR and assessment processes (methods, tools, practitioner attributes) that support those beliefs. The quality of this relationship is enriched by aligning supportive theoretical perspectives and by developing an understanding of the societal forces that are at work in translating those beliefs into action. The model begins the process of building a dynamic but cohesive representation of PLAR's place in adult education that brings clarity to the concept and improves PLAR's credibility as an educational activity.