Using Learning To Meet The Challenges Of Older Adulthood

Significant changes in the national demography bring us to a turning point in our understanding of older adults, in the challenges they are likely to face, and in the contribution learning may make to their later years. This sourcebook views learning as a response to the various challenges confronting older adults and describes that learning within the context of present practice and future challenges. Combining theory and research in educational gerontology with the practice of older adult learning and education, this volume explores issues and policies related to older adult education in academic and community settings. It is designed for educators and others concerned with the phenomenon of aging in America and with the continuing development of the field of educational gerontology. This is the 77th volume of the quarterly journal New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.

This practical guide provides an overview of current gerontological theory and research, and a summary of the principles of adult education. It aims to provide basic information and practical strategies for a range of practitioners and adult educators.

Drawing on the contributions of 75 leading authors in the field, this 2010 Edition of the respected Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education provides adult education scholars, programme administrators, and teachers with a solid foundation for understanding the current guiding beliefs, practices, and tensions faced in the field, as well as a basis for developing and refining their own approaches to their work and scholarship. Offering expanded discussions in the areas of social justice, technology, and the global dimensions of adult and continuing education, the Handbook continues the tradition of previous volumes with discussions of contemporary theories, current forms and contexts of practice, and core processes and functions. Insightful chapters examine adult and continuing education as it relates to gender and sexuality, race, our aging society, class and place, and disability.

As lifelong learning grows in popularity, few comprehensive pictures of the phenomenon have emerged. The Routledge International Handbook of Lifelong Learning provides a disciplined and complete overview of lifelong learning internationally. The theoretical structure puts the learner at the centre and the book emanates from there, pointing to the social context beyond the learner. Up-to-the-minute syntheses from many of the leading international experts in the field give vital snapshots of this rapidly evolving subject from wide-ranging perspectives including: learning throughout life sites of lifelong learning modes of learning policies social movements issues in lifelong learning geographical dimensions. This authoritative volume, essential reading for academics in the field of Lifelong Learning, examines the complexities of the subject within a systematic global framework and places it in its socio-historic context.

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A Journey Called Aging presents an insightful exploration of the years between the entry into older adulthood and death. This text examines the significant changes and major landmarks of older persons between 60 and 90. Grounded by a developmental framework based on empirical research, this book presents a new way of looking at older adulthood, describing the older adult years in intensely human terms through both anecdotes and research-based findings to engage the reader as both guide and traveler. Using a series of sequential stages as a framework, A Journey Called Aging discusses the experiences of older adults addressing the challenges and opportunities presented at each stage. This clear analysis can be used as a guide to help persons plan their own odyssey through the older years. Topics in A Journey Called Aging include: research and results of the study entering older adulthood the long stable stage of Extended Middle Age Early Transition Older Adult Lifestyle Later Transition the stable stage near the end of life the final transition A Journey Called Aging is crucial reading for professionals who work with older adults, including pastors, attorneys, facilities managers, and program directors; gerontology educators and students; and older adults themselves, their families, and those who care for and about them.

Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform provides an introduction to the principles of palliative care; describes current models of delivering palliative care across care settings, and examines opportunities in the setting of healthcare policy reform for palliative care to improve outcomes for patients, families and healthcare institutions. The United States is currently facing a crisis in health care marked by unsustainable spending and quality that is poor relative to international benchmarks. Yet this is also a critical time of opportunity. Because of its focus on quality of care, the Affordable Care Act is poised to expand access to palliative care services for the sickest, most vulnerable, and therefore most costly, 5% of patients- a small group who nonetheless drive about 50% of all healthcare spending. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis or stage of illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Research has demonstrated palliative care’s positive impact on health care value. Patients (and family caregivers) receiving palliative care experience improved quality of life, better symptom management, lower rates of depression and anxiety, and improved survival. Because patient and family needs are met, crises are prevented, thereby directly reducing need for emergency department and hospital use and their associated costs. An epiphenomenon of better quality of care, the lower costs associated with palliative care have been observed in multiple studies. Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform, a roadmap for effective policy and program design, brings together expert clinicians, researchers and policy leaders, who tackle key areas where real-world policy options to improve access to quality palliative care could have a substantial role in improving value.

This issue explores the growing field of adult degree programs andconsiders the theoretical underpinnings of such programs andhands-on issues as curriculum, faculty, marketing, technology,financing, and accreditation, all with a goal of informing andequipping both scholars and practitioners. More and more adults who have been out of school for many yearshave turned to colleges and universities to complete undergraduateand graduate degrees that will make them competitive in theworkforce, fulfill a professional requirement, or enrich themintellectually. Higher education institutions and many privateorganizations have responded to this demand by creating innovativedegree programs aimed specifically at mature learners, students whowant to self-design their educational programs and do not hesitateto change institutions if they believe their needs are not beingmet. This explosive growth in adult degree programs is largely theresult of distance education technologies and the Internet. Othersignificant factors include the potential such programs have forproviding additional revenue streams for institutions, the fiercecompetition from the private sector and other higher educationinstitutions, and the rising interest in interdisciplinaryprograms. This is the 103rd volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly reportseries New Directions for Adult and ContinuingEducation.