Older adults and training: Educational characteristics and pedagogical issues

Abstract

The training of older adults is a complex and recent field problem in education and training sciences. This discipline has only existed for about fifty years, and epistemological reflection is in its infancy. Scientific knowledge on this subject is still weak and studies are rare. Older adults are therefore a new public to be taken into consideration in adult training. Through a disciplinary approach, the article proposes to address the demographic, economic, ergonomic, etc. findings that help to better target the growing interest in this research topic. The presentation of several key results of our exploratory survey also opens up the reflection on educational issues for this public, which is not fundamentally different from other learners, but which requires special attention with respect to specificities of which diversity is an essential element.

Keywords

• aging
• adult learning
• learning specifics
• learning environments
• didactic/pedagogical knowledge