New Approaches to the Education of Older Adults

✍ Scribed by Mary Alice Wolf

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Weight: 241 KB
• Volume: 1998
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-2891
• DOI: 10.1002/ace.7702

✦ Synopsis

This chapter discusses factors that serve as the foundation for program development for older learners, including developmental perspectives, longitudinal re s e a rch into lifespan habits, gender roles, reminiscence, cognition, and needbased learning.

Developmental Perspectives

A number of theories can be used as a framework to explore development in older adulthood. Most useful is the theory of Erik Erikson (1963, 1981, 1982, and 1986 with Erikson and Kivnick), who explored the nature of psychosocial tasks that individuals accomplish at specific stages in life. For this discussion, the last two stages, generativity and integrity, are most important.

Generativity. Generativity can be observed in the many ways that older people contribute to the lives of younger persons. According to Erikson, m a t u re individuals have a mandate to support the development of the next generation. Educational opportunities for this developmental task can be found in church settings, grandparenting organizations, tutoring, and other are n a s . In a group of re t i red adults attending leadership training at a center in Nort h Carolina, 78 percent had turned to volunteerism (Manheimer and Snodgrass, 1993). These older adults worked an average of 9.3 hours each week as public school tutors, in the Red Cross, in synagogues, in re t i rement communities, and in adult day-care centers. Generativity through education and "creative re t i rement" (Manheimer, 1992) is a vibrant concept in the lives of many older adults. In a sample of "elderlearners," ages 55 to 96, Lamdin (1997) found that 72.9 p e rcent volunteered within their communities. Intere s t i n g l y, many older a d u l t s