Elderly Learners Research Articles

노년기 일본인 한국어 학습자의 외국어 불안의 특징과 읽기 성취도의 상관성

노년기 일본인 한국어 학습자의 외국어 불안의 특징과 읽기 성취도의 상관성

Lifelong Learning

The struggles faced by elder learners suffering from age-related cognitive decline are often overlooked by instructional designers. However, existing educational theories that already inform learning strategy development for other populations should also help establish instructional methods used to help elder learners. In this article, cognitive load theory frames an exploration of proposed means to slow or counteract the effects of age-related cognitive decline in elder learners. Attention is given to the ways in which multimedia learning methods adhering to certain principles of cognitive load theory can increase available working memory capacity. Evidence is provided to show that cognitive load theory-based practices can also facilitate one’s activation of prior knowledge and betters one’s attentional control. Additionally, elder learners benefit from tasks that include worked examples and goal-free problems, whereas conventional, goal-oriented problems impose greater extraneous load on an already taxed working memory. The outcomes of the present analysis can also be applied to stroke victims’ rehabilitation plans and may offer implications for individuals suffering from other brain injuries, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, or dementia-related illnesses.

A Study on the Effect of the Factors Elderly Learners on Successful Aging: Focused on Personal Characteristics, Musical Activities and Depression of Learners at a Senior Welfare Center in Seoul

본 연구는 노인학습자의 개인특성, 음악활동, 우울이 성공적 노화에 미치는 영향을 파악하고자 한 것이다. 연구대상은 서울시 소재 E 노인종합복지관의 음악활동 프로그램에 참여하는 만 60세 이상의 남녀 노인학습자이다. 자료 수집 기간은 2018년 5월 말경부터 약 일주일 정도이며, 최종 분석대상은 총 127명이다. SPSS 18.0 프로그램을 사용해 자료를 분석하였으며, 빈도분석, 상관분석, 다중 회귀분석을 활용하여 영향력을 확인하였다. 분석결과, 첫째, 노인학습자의 성공적 노화에 영향을 미치는 개인특성은 배우자 유무(있음)와 건강상태 변인으로 나타났다. 둘째, 음악활동의 변인 중 음악공연 관람횟수 변인만이 성공적 노화에 유의미한 영향을 나타냈다. 셋째, 우울 변인은 중요한 변인으로써 그 영향력은 유의미한 것으로 확인되었다. 이에 노인 가족복지와 건강증진, 그리고 우울 관리를 위해 정부와 지자체에서는 정책과제의 대상 및 예산을 확대해야 하며, 노인의 생애주기별에 따른 음악문화향유의 지원체계 구축에 힘써야 한다. 대학, 노인시설 및 관련 교육기관, 복지관, 보건기관 등에서는 지역사회 참여와 교육활동 시간 활용 연계가 가능한 노인 맞춤형 매칭 프로그램 활성화가 요구되며, 정형화된 기관의 음악프로그램 차원을 벗어나 전 생애를 통한 평생교육 차원의 계속 교육에 동참하게 하여 노인의 긍정적 자아상 회복과 성공적인 노후 설계가 이루어지게 해야 한다.This study intended to investigate the effects of elderly learners’ personal characteristics, musical activities and depression on successful aging. The subjects were male and female elderly learners, aged 60 or older, who participated in a musical activity program of E Senior Welfare Service Center located in Seoul. The data collection was performed for a period of about a week in late May, 2018, and a total of 127 people were selected as final subjects for analysis. The SPSS 18.0 program was used for data analysis, and the effectiveness of the factors in this study was verified through frequency analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The results of the analysis are as follow. Frist, the analysis showed that the personal characteristics affecting elderly learners’ successful aging were presence of a spouse(yes) and subjective health condition. Second, among five variables related to musical activities, only “number of visits to musical performances” had a statistically significant effect on elderly learners’ successful aging. Third, the depression variable was found to be an important variable having a statistically significant effect on successful aging. The above results suggest that the central and local governments should cover more people in policy tasks and increase budgets for the elderly’s family welfare, health improvement and depression management, while making an effort to establish a support system for the elderly to enjoy musical culture, tailored to different life stages. Institutes, including, universities, facilities and education institutes for the elderly, welfare centers and health agencies, are required to facilitate elderly-tailored matching programs that can operate in connection with community participation and education activities. These programs should depart from stereotypical music programs offered by institutes and encourage the elderly to engage in continuing education as lifelong education throughout the entire life cycle so that the elderly can regain a positive self-image and successfully plan for later years.

How to help older adults learn new technology? Results from a multiple case research interviewing the internet technology instructors at the senior learning center

The incorporation of technology into everyday life has become the core of the learning process of older adults. However, how technology is implemented in senior learning environments is not well known. This study employed a multiple case research method focused on understanding employment, adjustment, and revision of the teaching strategies used by experienced instructors at senior learning centers. The results indicate that the instructors developed different teaching strategies when teaching older learners, which included: 1) Reserved teaching: where instructors reserve some of the learning content, so elderly learners can continue their learning of a topic if they continue to participate in the same class; 2) Unscripted performance: where instructors flexibly adjust or jump outside the box of the previously scheduled teaching content to respond to ever-changing learning situations and the needs of the elderly learners, and 3) Assistance from peers: where instructors can ease the one-to-many teaching burden and also strengthen the learning confidence of the elderly.

臺北市高齡學習者健康促進、人際互動及生活滿意之研究 Health Improvement, Interpersonal Relationships, and Life Satisfaction Among Elderly Learners in Taipei

臺北市高齡學習者健康促進、人際互動及生活滿意之研究 Health Improvement, Interpersonal Relationships, and Life Satisfaction Among Elderly Learners in Taipei

Empirical Study on elderly learners’ needs and obstacles in network learning by “3C products”

This study treated elderly learners at Open University of Kaohsiung who participated in online distance learning as samples. By a literature review and questionnaire survey, it probed into elderly learners’ perceived reactions and feedback for network learning using consumer electronics products and analyzed the general situation and relationship between elderly learners’ needs and obstacles in network learning with consumer electronics products. By empirical research, this study investigated a total of 472 elderly learners aged at least 55 years old in elderly programs at Open University of Kaohsiung, for-credit continuing education courses, and on-the-job courses of universities in different counties and cities around Taiwan. This study found that elderly learners with a lower educational level encounter more significant learning obstacles in network learning using consumer electronics products. In addition, this study found that when elderly learners’ needs to apply consumer electronics products are higher, their network learning obstacles will be lower. Based on the findings, this study suggested that it shall help elderly learners with lower educational level reinforce learning knowledge and competence to apply consumer electronics products to avoid obstacles for network learning.

The Effect of Elderly Learner Characteristics on Participation of Online-Learning - Center of Open Secondary High School -

The Effect of Elderly Learner Characteristics on Participation of Online-Learning - Center of Open Secondary High School -

Changing patterns of perceived ICT skill levels of elderly learners in a digital literacy training course

Changing patterns of perceived ICT skill levels of elderly learners in a digital literacy training course

Different Perspectives on the Use of L1 inTeaching English to the Elderly

Own-language use has commonly been discouraged by language teachers worldwide ever since the Grammar Translation method gave place to other methods. In the last decade, however, there has been a visible shift in the use of mother tongue and, what is notable, an increasing number of methodologists have begun to point that the use of students’ mother tongue may in fact facilitate the process of learning. Despite the long awaited return of own-language use students’ learning preferences regarding the use of L1 are still often dismissed by teachers either due to lack of experience or to some reservations. Such attitudes may be especially harmful to a group which often demands own-language use in the classroom environment and which remains understudied – the elderly. Therefore, the primary objective of the proposed paper is to highlight the differences between various teacher perceptions of whether or not own-language use does facilitate the process of older adult students’ learning and to collate them with older adult students’ own answers. The secondary objective is to present a possibly wide spectrum of various views reflecting the issues connected with the use of students’ own language and the related influence of teachers’ experiences and perceptions. The disparity between the answers provided by inexperienced teachers, experienced teachers and the elderly learners, especially while taking into account the use of students’ L1, is aimed at drawing some conclusions that may point to alternative directions in the future studies of own-language use in the classroom environment

Motivations of older Chinese adult learners in Hong Kong.

Motivation for learning, as an important aspect pertaining to studying the phenomenon of elder learning, is not fully explored in Hong Kong. This study was designed to create a measurement to investigate the possible diversity of motivations of elder learners, so as to harness the older people's potential in learning and thus capitalize on productive ageing. 283 older learners participating in learning activities at elder centres were interviewed. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the latent factors in the learning motivation scale. Reliability of the scale was assessed. ANOVA testing was used to assess for differences in learning motivation by different socio-demographic variables. Four dimensions of older Chinese adults' motivations for engaging in learning have been found: 'keeping up with and contributing to society', 'fulfilment', 'social integration' and 'reemployment'. Elders with higher education levels were more likely to seek out opportunities for lifelong learning. Younger (aged 55 to 64) participants of learning activities were more likely than their older (aged 75 or above) counterparts to learn for fulfillment. Older adults who had volunteer experience were more motivated to engage in learning through keeping up with and contributing to society. Older learners in Hong Kong participated in learning for self-fulfilment and development, contributing to society, maintaining social connection, and acquisition of knowledge and qualifications for possible (re)employment. Some of their socio-demographic features might influence their motivations. Learning programmes could be designed and improved based on older adults' motivations to meet their needs.

Contextual Interference Can Facilitate Motor Learning in Older Adults and in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

ABSTRACTIn healthy young adults motor learning is typically improved by practice under conditions of high contextual interference such as that created when a series of skills are practiced in a random sequence. The authors examined whether individuals with Parkinson's disease and age-matched older adults might also benefit from such a learning environment. Participants learned 3 peg placement movements under both random practice and blocked practice schedules. Participants completed free-recall, cued-recall, and transfer tests 1 day and 1 week following practice. During acquisition all learners had shorter movement times (MTs) during blocked than random practice but during retention testing, MTs were shorter if the patterns had been learned with random practice. Fewer errors during free recall following random practice were evident in both groups of learners and MTs to complete a novel transfer task were shorter following random practice. These findings suggest employing a cognitively challenging practice environment might improve motor skill learning in elderly learners and in people with Parkinson's disease.

Seniors’ demographic correlates for motivations to enroll in degree-conferring programs in universities

ABSTRACTPolicies, practices, and studies have long been focused on nonformal learning for older adults as if this were the only learning context for grey populations. In fact, today more elderly adults participate in degree-conferring programs. It is important to explore why formal learning environments attract the elderly. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore relationships between demographic characteristics and motivations of older adults who enroll in degree-conferring programs in higher education including undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs in Taiwan. A total of 287 questionnaires filled out by students aged 60 and above were analyzed. The data showed that (a) The demographic characteristics of this group were dissimilar to those of elder learners in nonformal settings. Those who enrolled in degree-conferring higher education programs were predominantly male, young-old, and still employed. (b) The first five important motivations for elder adults enrolling in degree-conferring programs in universities were pursuing and updating knowledge and skills, fitting in with job-related needs and competitions, achieving a life goal, keeping abreast of social changes, and gaining a degree. (c) Retirement status and age predict enrollment motivations. This study enriches our understanding of heterogeneity of elderly learners and provides evidence to make more inclusive policies for elder education. More systematic learning with long-term and intensive requirements, such as enrolling in universities, is needed and desired by some older adults. The roles of higher education in promoting elder learning should be further discussed, addressed, and created.

Elderly Learners and Massive Open Online Courses: A Review.

BackgroundMassive open online courses (MOOCs) have become commonplace in the e-learning landscape. Thousands of elderly learners are participating in courses offered by various institutions on a multitude of platforms in many different languages. However, there is very little research into understanding elderly learners in MOOCs.ObjectiveWe aim to show that a considerable proportion of elderly learners are participating in MOOCs and that there is a lack of research in this area. We hope this assertion of the wide gap in research on elderly learners in MOOCs will pave the way for more research in this area.MethodsPre-course survey data for 10 University of Reading courses on the FutureLearn platform were analyzed to show the level of participation of elderly learners in MOOCs. Two MOOC aggregator sites (Class Central and MOOC List) were consulted to gather data on MOOC offerings that include topics relating to aging. In parallel, a selected set of MOOC platform catalogues, along with a recently published review on health and medicine-related MOOCs, were searched to find courses relating to aging. A systematic literature search was then employed to identify research articles on elderly learners in MOOCs.ResultsThe 10 courses reviewed had a considerable proportion of elderly learners participating in them. For the over-66 age group, this varied from 0.5% (on the course “Managing people”) to 16.3% (on the course “Our changing climate”), while for the over-56 age group it ranged from 3.0% (on “A beginners guide to writing in English”) to 39.5% (on “Heart health”). Only six MOOCs were found to include topics related to aging: three were on the Coursera platform, two on the FutureLearn platform, and one on the Open2Study platform. Just three scholarly articles relating to MOOCs and elderly learners were retrieved from the literature search.ConclusionsThis review presents evidence to suggest that elderly learners are already participating in MOOCs. Despite this, there has been very little research into their engagement with MOOCs. Similarly, there has been little research into exploiting the scope of MOOCs for delivering topics that would be of interest to elderly learners. We believe there is potential to use MOOCs as a way of tackling the issue of loneliness among older adults by engaging them as either resource personnel or learners.

Elderly learners in combined-age learning groups picking up on new professional skills

In the study carried out by using qualitative methods, a research instrument for measuring the applicability of principles recommended for the elderly learning in an age-heterogeneous group was created based on geragogy reference sources. The action research of one group showed that most of the principles of geragogy were applied in the study process, although the respective training course was not specifically designed for the elderly. In this combined-age learning group, elderly learners experienced some problems, and recommendations are proposed to solve them.

From the desk of the New President

From the desk of the New President

Elderly Korean Learners' Participation in English Learning Through Lifelong Education: Focusing on Motivation and Demotivation

This study explores motivational and demotivational factors in English learning among elderly learners attending a lifelong education institute located in Seoul, South Korea. A total of 420 elderly learners with limited English learning experience responded to a questionnaire with 47 five-point Likert-type items. In order to investigate what factors encourage and discourage elderly learners in their participation in English learning, we conducted factor analysis, which indicated five motivational and three demotivational constructs. The motivational factor of self-actualization proved the most influential, while pressure from the Graduation Equivalency Examination was the most demotivating. It was found that the motivational factors demonstrated positive correlations with demotivational factors, and that the ideal L2 self showed the highest correlation with demotivational factors. Furthermore, the elderly learners' motivation did not exhibit significant change related to their years of learning experience from less than one year to more than three years.

ICT and Lifelong Learning: Hong Kong's Experience for Elderly Learners

Learning plays a key role in ageing societies as it can help to address many of the related challenges and opportunities. Opportunities to learn should be given to senior citizens through appropriate local lifelong learning programmes. There is a need to improve research and development on learning tools and approaches designed to meet the different needs of older people. ICT has an important role to play in developing learning opportunities for older people both as a topic in its own right and as a means of learning in the so called knowledge society. This paper reports on a Hong Kong case survey understanding the role of ICT in lifelong learning for elderly and its impact of learning activity. The survey results suggest numbers of areas should be taken into consideration for older people as both learners and mentors.

Understanding the Need of Mobile ICT Learning as an Elderly Learning Tool

With a rapid deployment of mobile devices, mobile learning gives rise to new possibilities for extending learning opportunities. Nevertheless, current research on mobile learning has mostly been aimed at enhancing learning of school or college students. In this light, the paper seeks to throw light on the potential of mobile learning for elderly. We describe in this paper a research study for examining needs that determine the adoption and usage of mobile devices by elderly population. The elderly are an often neglected group in product development and marketing, but they are the only growing age group in most developed societies. By using semi-structured interviews with a number of different stakeholders interested in elderly people, we identify a set of issues that need to be taken into account when designing strategy for the elderly learners. The results of our study indicate that elderly people are interested in using mobile devices and services, but these services need to deliver real value for them.

Education in old age: An exploratory study

The following work outlines an analysis of education initiatives aimed at the elderly. It examines the characteristics of the old aged learner, his/her ‘educability’ and the foundations for an educational approach for this age group. These theoretical assumptions form the basis of this research: an exploratory study into various educational and training environments offered to the elderly. The analysed approaches suggest characteristics and means of understanding the multiple facets of the research subject, whilst the research findings allow us to understand certain aspects of the educational contexts which the elderly learner encounters, in order to delineate a didactic approach for old age.

Cognitive Aging and Computer-Based Instructional Design: Where Do We Go From Here?

In this article, themost relevant literature on cognitive aging and instructional design is merged to formulate recommendations for designing computer-based training material aimed at elderly learners. The core message is that researchers and instructional designers do not need to develop special computerized instruction for older adults. Rather, existing principles of general instructional and multimedia design can be evaluated and used to accommodate the needs of elderly learners. Particular attention is given to John Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and Richard Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML). It is argued that these instructional theories bear important benefits for older learners because they support an efficient use of available cognitive resources. New research directions are suggested to test the implications of these theories for learning in old age.