Elderlearning

Why do elders learn?

Lois Lamdin and Mary Fugate researched the learning motives and methods 860 elders between 55 and 96 with the Elderlearning Survey. Respondents mostly included participants of AARP, Elderhostels, Institutes for Learning in Retirement, OASIS, and a study/travel group.

Almost 80% of the elders learn for the sheer of joy of learning. The next three most powerful reasons for learning are "to pursue a long-standing interest or hobby" at 57.9%, "to meet people, socialize" at 53.6%, and "to engage in creative activity" at 47.2%.

In their book, Elderlearning: New Frontier in an Aging Society, the authors remark how joy is the number one reason because the surveys have stars, circles, multiple exclamation points, written comments, nothing else checked, or rank ordering with joy as number one. Not only do the statistics argue for it, but the respondents wanted to make sure the researchers were certain.


What is a learner-led class?
-> Contact Jane Steinfirst of the U. Cincinati ILR or Gretchen Lankfort of Carnegie Mellon's Academy of Lifelong Learning.

What is self-directed learning?
-> The Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning discusses the polictical nature of self-directed learning. Learners who are totally free to choose how and what they will learn and with access to all the information they need should be able to do a better job of making decisions than powerful minority interests. Learning will bring learners into conflict with establishment that hold the keys to resources.