Rationale

Older adult education is constantly advocated due to its potential to develop alternative visions for democratic social change. Older adult educational programmes have been applauded for aiding lonely older persons to resocialise themselves in society by enabling them to form new groups; providing opportunities, patterns, and content for the use and structure of the older persons' free-time; developing a progressive delight of life; increasing the social integration and harmony of older persons in society; as well as making older persons more visible in society. At the same time, gerontological research has concluded that such programmes improve older persons' abilities of understanding the objective world by comprehending better world development and social progress; and ameliorate their health status by enabling them to master medical care knowledge and prevention of disease. Finally, older adult education also addresses various intellectual, emotional, physical, leisure, and spiritual needs of older persons, as well as providing older persons with an opportunity to organise and co-ordinate social/cultural activities which in turn makes their life more fruitful and energetic.

Nevertheless, what may seem as a straight forward exercise in theory, in  practice may contain some degree of conflict. While older adult educational programmes may be meeting more than one of the above-mentioned claims, at the same time they may be failing in other important moral aspects. As early as 1979, sociologists argued that most older adult educational programmes pandered to the cultural pretensions of an aged bourgeoisie who had already learned to play the system. Furthermore, the past decade saw older adult educational programmes also being criticised for regarding older persons as a homogenous group without social class, gender or ethnic divisions; being under-pinned by middle-class notions of education; failing to escape the pervasiveness of schooling; segregating older learners from the wider community; not meeting the real needs of disadvantaged elders; occurring amid an absence of critical reflection; as well as presupposing that any type of education empowers older persons.

Nowadays, building on the knowledge base produced over the last two decades, it has become possible for educational gerontologists to be able to give some sort of meaning to the term 'good practice' in relation to the education and training of older adults. Some of these interpretations will now be examined in turn

Availability of Information

A quintessential element in the education for older persons must include a wide availability of choice of learning opportunities. Choice also implies adequate knowledge of what is on offer, and thus the availability of information and suitable guidance. Local authorities and involved agencies must ensure that they provide information about educational opportunities in places where older persons generally frequent. These would include locations such as churches, post offices, public and private pharmacies, post offices, health clinics, day centres, and residential homes/ institutions for older persons. Moreover, one must employ the resources of television, radio, newspapers, and community announcements as much as possible. A further consideration here is the needs of illiterate older persons or those with physical and sensory impairments. The more different types of technologies that are utilised for the dissemination of information, the more is the probability that one will get in touch with such subgroups of older persons.

Planning

A second important feature of good practice is undoubtedly 'planning'. Older people themselves, as the users of the services provided, should be involved in shaping and defining what is provided. In other words, older adult education must be performed by older persons for older persons. It is not the case of treating the older segment of the population as if they are less competent and proficient persons than their young and adult social peers. Programmes must not be organised and co-ordinated solely by professionals in the fields of education or gerontology. It is evident that amongst retirees there is a high volume of experience and expertise that enables them to formulate needed programmes by themselves. Government and other local agencies must only assist as far as financial and logistic resources are involved. In truth, it is very difficult for non-older persons to be aware of the exact needs and preferences of older persons, considering that they possess different generational and cohort experiences.

Learning Environment

The creation of an accessible and appropriate learning environment in which learning can take place is an important aspect for older adults. It is of utmost significance that agencies offer a plurality of accessible, welcoming and comfortable venues. By the 'learning environment', one is not only referring to the physical world, but also to psychological and emotional settings. Thus, an adequate learning environment includes such aspects as acceptable illumination and auditory amplification, comfortable furnishing and seating arrangement, and facilitators/administrators who help learners feel relaxed and at ease with each other. Moreover, considering that a relatively high number of older persons do not live in their homes, and many are to a large extent restricted to public transport, timing of the educational activities is also a crucial issue. As regards the physical environment stairs must be avoided as much as possible, and if present, one must make sure that ramps or elevators are available for persons with mobility difficulties or who may be even wheelchair bound. Location of classes must be as central as possible and in a site that is easily accessible. Finally, financial costs must be kept at minimum especially when one considers that much of the current economical and social structures were built on past older learners' tax contributions.

Intergenerational Opportunities

Older persons should be able to participate in educational activities on an equal basis with younger people, rather than deeming them as a separate group within society. The establishment of agencies and organisations that provide educational opportunities for older adults must not preclude society from deliberating as how older adults can join other educational agencies whose majority of learners are relatively younger. In some respects, third-age learning centres do provide positive functions, such as greater commonality and likelihood of peer support; convenient daytime scheduling, affordable costs, and simpler registration procedures; specific curricula shaped to meet the interests of older learners; as well as providing an opportunity for older persons to exercise a degree of control and leadership. It has also been argued that for subject areas focusing on role needs in later life, and older adult education taking place in isolated units such as geriatric hospitals and institutions, age-segregated classes may be advantageous. Yet, it is also true third age segregated learning programmes may not always be an example of good practice. Such programmes may fall in the trap of not responding well to the needs of deprived older adults, being too small to provide differentiated and specialised course programmes, segregating older students from the rest of population, as well as embodying low levels in the quality of educational experience and courses offered.

Teaching and Learning

Learning in later life can take place in a variety of contexts. When enacting opportunities for older adult education one must not only think of formal classroom learning, but also of 'individual learning' and 'practice-oriented learning'. To consider formal classroom learning is to bear in mind a wide variety of purposes, settings, rationales and educational approaches - taking into account the experiences and intentions of the older learners rather than occurring in a form of monologue from teacher to students. Individual learning takes place when the goals of a learning activity are defined by older persons themselves, and with the experience ceasing when they decide that such goals are achieved. Practice-oriented learning takes place in a group mode but where the goals of what is being discussed have particular practical relevance. An example includes situations where older learners learn to develop skills which will help them take action in problematic situations. The latter may be diverse ranging from grand-parenting to physical disability. This type of education helps older people to develop their talents, learn to cope with changing roles and responsibilities, and help them to build on and value their lifelong experience.

Curriculum

The aims and objectives of older adult education programmes must be as wide as the various interests of the older adult population for no generalisation can be made for older adults' educational preferences. Learning needs, for example, may be either instrumental or expressive, utilitarian or non-utilitarian, and field-dependent or field-independent. The fact that that most older adult classes focus on courses in the humanities, social sciences and leisure time activities may be repressive. Although it is true that most older persons show such preferences, one must not exclude other older persons whose preferences may be in the minority. Moreover, it is evident that many programmes in older adult education contain a middle-class bias. Nevertheless, it is imperative that the curriculum approaches older persons as a homogenous group since all (albeit some more than others) experience negative ageist discriminations. In contemporary societies, ageism is a powerful discriminatory force on a par with racism and sexism ?manifesting itself as a complex and subtle phenomenon in historical, cultural, social, psychological, and ideological dimensions. In some social quarters ageism is also giving way to 'gerontophobia', a fear of growing old or hatred of the aged. In this respect, the curriculum must include subjects that aim to make older persons more aware of how their suppressed social position is ultimately the result of hegemonical ideological manoeuvres rather than natural processes.

An Emancipatory Gerogogy

Another central issue in any educational project concerns the 'art and science of teaching' employed by educators, referred in older adult education, as 'gerogogy'. Agreeing with Paulo Freire that 'education is politics', in that it works either in the in favour or against the status qou, it is important that older adult education takes the latter course as its rationale. Programmes therefore cannot aim solely to fulfil the individual needs and preferences of learners, but must endeavour to bring forth social reforms in the interests of both older persons and society in general. Following Freire's epistemology, the objective for education is to reach a level of critical consciousness. This refers to a communal interplay of action and reflection under conditions of freedom and autonomy of learning which leads learners 'to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions' and 'to take action against the oppressive elements of society'.

Freire's philosophy is crucial for older adult education because similar to the people he worked with in Latin America, older persons are in enveloped in a 'culture of silence'. They are totally dependent on the state and younger persons' specialist opinions about the need for retirement and pension policies with their own views being totally ignored. Another argument in favour for a liberating gerogogy is the fact that certain subgroups of older persons - especially lower class, female, disabled, and ethnic elders ? experience relatively much higher incidents of ageist discriminations that average person. Finally, one must also remark that despite the expected increase in the demand for older adult education, few educational or gerontological departments are preparing educators for this role. It is lamentable to note that many of the current older adult educators are not trained in gerogogical discourse which includes a knowledge of gerontological group dynamics, knowledge of the process of ageing, and a firm positive affirmation in the qualities of older persons.

Participation and Provision

Older adult education must aim at improving access to continuing education at all levels rather than solely to older persons who show such interest. Agencies must develop strategies that are successful in recruiting categories of older persons who are normally under represented in typical classes. One strategy that can be employed is 'outreach education'. Outreach education refers to work initiated and developed by professionals which aims to facilitate learning opportunities outside formal setting with adults who would not usually participate in traditional provision. Therefore, in older adult education outreach has two major objectives. First, to provide educational opportunities to older adults who are male, possess low educational attainment and qualifications, are in the 70 plus cohort, live in rural areas, come from working-class backgrounds, and who were previously employed in manual occupations. And secondly, to provide educational opportunities to older adults who are confined in some way, either in their own homes, within a residential home, or in long stay geriatric wards.

An idea that works side by side with outreach education in order for older adult education to break its parochial boundaries is 'distance education'. Despite the weaknesses of distance education (such as addressing a huge, heterogeneous audience, fostering non-attentiveness), developments in telecommunications have allowed for the possibility of interactive classes. Distance education holds a distinct advantage for housebound and institutionalised older persons since this is the only possible means whereby they can possibly take part in educational sessions - unless classes takes place within their residences. For the older population in general, distance learning techniques hold a number of advantages such as allowing learners to proceed at their own speed, with the system checking progress as the course proceeds, and where the learner can go over the material as many times as is necessary without fear of embarrassment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have attempted, in such a short space, to address some of the issues which I believe are those which older adult educators need to grapple in the early years of the new millennium. Predicted demographic changes coupled with the kind of developments mentioned above and the different life experiences of future cohorts of adults as they reach later life connotes that older adult education will come to take on different functions and meanings in the coming years. Whilst it is not too difficult a task for educational gerontologists to conceptualise what good practice in the education and training of older adults ought to mean, I believe that that we have still long way to go in achieving 'good practice' on a large scale. At the same time, I also am aware that such 'good practice literature' needs further empirical investigation. However, if this short piece has at least succeeded in stimulating debate and discussion, then some purpose would have been achieved.
 

Marvin Formosa B.Psy. P.G.C.E. M.A (Soc.) is an Assistant Lecturer within the Division of Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Malta, and Educational Officer of the Maltese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics>