This chapter examines the potential for personal growth, development, and learning of older adult women who will have many productive years in the workforce. What implications are there for adult education communities who will interact with these older women? How do they adapt to the educational environment, and what social support will enable…

Provides descriptions and analyses of the learning patterns exhibited by older adult learners, giving evidence that older adults have considerable potential for structuring meaning. (JOW)

Using memories is a feasible way to work with older adults. Through an interactive reminiscence process, older people often come to terms with "unfinished business" and untapped strengths. The process is important for adult education practitioners who can enrich their understanding of lifeways and inner worlds of diverse populations in their…

Discusses an educational protocol conducted with a group of older women in religious life. Sixty women, aged 60 and above, members of a Roman Catholic religious order, participated in a series of educational workshops. They explored their own personal growth and development through exercises in values clarification, lifeline, and life review. (CT)

Discusses a method of teaching human development through the use of writing journals and reading the novels of May Sarton. Uses excerpts from students' journals to highlight the process by which human service workers begin to overcome the distance between their worlds and the worlds of the elderly with whom they will work. (Author)

Describes a study of 12 older learners, aged 60 to 80, of varied backgrounds, enrolled in a variety of educational programs. Complex reasons for choosing education, arising from personal needs, reminiscence, ambitions, and attitudes are evoked, and the process of reengagement is seen as accompanying the process of aging. (SK)

Examines theoretical underpinnings of educational gerontology that serve as the foundation of programming, including developmental perspectives, longitudinal research into the lifespan, gender roles, reminiscence, cognition, and need-based learning. (SK)

Discusses fieldwork experience in human development/gerontology that focuses on tapping reflections of individuals through interrelative process of interviewing. Presents phenomenological data gathering technique and explores method of life review and reminiscence collection taught to 200 college students. Describes protocol, discusses samples of…

Studied elderly religious women (n=30) using a phenomenological interview technique. Discusses women's "call to vocation," the remembered life events that influenced their decisions to enter the convent as young girls. Participants described motivations and spiritual direction. Uses remembrances of three women to demonstrate circumstances and…

Educators must create learning opportunities to stimulate older adults and allow them to develop. These educators must also operationalize self-fulfillment in adult education. Research and theory indicate that cognition is an adaptive process and elders who practice learning activities will maintain their abilities. Further, research and theory of…

Written for both professionals and lay persons working with the development and education of older adults, this book addresses issues of aging, expectations for aged persons, and the means to respond in practical and educationally sound ways to the changing needs of older adults. The book is organized in four parts. Part I introduces the world of…

Older adults attend continuing education courses for a variety of reasons. Some, like Wuschko K., seek to make sense of their early life experiences. Wuschko is a Polish immigrant who wanted to go on with his education in early life but was prevented from doing so by poverty and war. He spent years in a concentration camp, then became a carpenter…

Erik Erikson's model (1963, 1982) is most useful to an understanding of development and aging. He describes lifelong growth as related to tasks that must be performed. At each stage of life, times of stability are followed by developmental crises. Upon resolving the crisis, the individual can enjoy the particular beauty and security of that…

Through in-depth interviews, the motivation and experience of 40 Elderhostel participants, aged 60 to 80, were studied and personal stories were collected. This information was analyzed within the framework of relevant psychosocial and gerontological theory and research. The findings identified some general characteristics of the population,…

Although educators know that older persons bring experience, curiosity, and motivation into the educational setting, they often do not consider the aged to be engaged in development, especially in the development of trust. Education can provide for older persons a means for focusing on society and self. The classroom can serve as a stimulus to…