Older Adult Students

1. Older Adult Students Appearing Soon On Your Campus Linda Pearson, Ph.D. Adjunct Faculty IvyTech Community College of Indiana, Wabash Valley Region

2. Implications of the Increasing Aging Population • Longer Lifespan • Active longer into later life • Need for activities to maintain: • Health including cognitive health • Life satisfaction • Needs for employment

3. Changing Views of Retirement PRESENT • Work longer • Social Security increasing to age 67 • Retirement is a time to Engage • Retirement as a new stage of life, a time to regroup and find a new direction • Increasing options and opportunities for activities and involvement PAST • Work to age 65 • Retirement seen as a time to Disengage • Goal was for a few years of leisure and self-interest • Ideal was to spend the winter in Florida

4. Reasons Older Adults Become Students To pursue personal interests To retrain or update work skills 3. To acquire new occupational skills Second Careers or Encore Careers

5. Pursue Personal Interests • Continued learning is encouraged to maintain cognitive health and to keep one’s mind active. • As activity in retirement, a means to pursue one’s interests. • As self-fulfillment, “I always wanted to develop my art skills,” . . . read literature . . .learn to decorate. • As part of volunteerism, service and activities.

6. For Occupational Skills Reasons older people delay retirement or return to the workforce. Eligibility for social security increasing to age 67 for those born after 1959. Workers have increased responsibility for funding their retirement savings and paying for health insurance. Future shortages may create opportunities for skilled workers to stay in the workforce. • Increasing cost of living and costs of prescription medications • Not just those who are low-income, many older adults find the need to supplement income once into retirement. • Current economic downturn & recessionary conditions

7. What’s New? • Not uncommon to find older adults among your students. • May teach older adults in targeted programs like the Senior Scholars Program. • As part of outreach or continuing education as with offering programs at senior centers, in retirement housing, or in collaboration with senior employment programs. • What is different is that the 50+ student population will increase! It is likely that you will teach more older adults in specialized programs or more of you will encounter older adult students in your courses. . . . . . . . Both leisure learners AND for occupational skills.

8. 50+ Students to Increase at Community Colleges • Older Students more likely to attend a community college than are students under the age of 25. • Half of the college-going adults aged 50 and older attend community colleges. • Older adults stay in their communities. • Community colleges are affordable and offer quick turn-around courses.

9. Popular Areas of Study • Fine Arts/Humanities • Business Management and • Entrepreneurship • Human Services and Counseling • Teaching Education • Health Services • (Lakin, Mullane & Porter 2008)

10. Student Characteristics • As learners, older adults share many of the same characteristics, needs, and interests as the general student population (both traditional and non-traditional). • Like other student populations, older adults as a segment, have unique characteristics, needs, and interests.

11. 50+ Segment A Diverse Mix of Age Groups • 55—60 • Late Middle-Age • Largest Segment of the Baby • Boom Generation • Older workers, anticipating • retirement • Young retirees • 70-80 • Most are retired • In later stage of this period transitioning into old age • 60-70 • Young-old • Front end of the Baby Boom • Generation • Transitioning to retirement or • are retired • 80+ • Oldest Old • Fastest growing segment of the population • Well into retirement

12. Age Diverse • 50 year olds different from 65 year olds who are different from 80 year olds. Unique needs exist within each of these age groups.

13. How do we instruct, support and encourage the success of older learners?

14. Personal Characteristics • May be in transition from employment to retirement. • Change may not be a personal choice as with downsizing, layoff or dislocation. • Hold personal views about opportunities related to age; may believe less opportunity than if younger. • May have physical limitations that prohibit certain employment opportunities. • May be starting over and have experience; yet, no experience. • Experience from prior employment that does not apply to the new endeavor.

15. Cognitive Considerations • INTELLIGENCE • Remains fairly stable far into life. • Recent research shows staying active, using the mind, and physical exercise to positively influence cognition. • Changes that have been found may reflect lifestyle rather than unavoidable decline. • Much variation in the intelligence and learning performance of older adults. Some older adults do function at high levels. • Educational level may be a more important factor than age regarding mental ability. Among higher educated older adults’ change in intellectual ability is less.

16. Majors Areas of Cognitive Change Generally and especially in regard to procedural learning SPEED. We tend to process information more slowly, especially regarding new and unfamiliar information/settings than do younger people. WORKING MEMORY . It is the “in-the moment” type of information processing that would be used in a class to listen AND visually take-in the information. • SPATIAL ABILITY. The type of cognitive processing used to locate objects or a place. For example, “I remember seeing your keys but I don’t remember where I saw them” involves spatial ability. Finding your way in an unfamiliar place is another example of spatial ability. • (Morrell & Echt, 1996)

17. Other Age-Related Changes Related to Teaching & Learning • VISION • Of interest here are the subtle changes that take place in the eye that affect our ability to view and consume written information. • HEARING • Age-related losses are greater at high pitches. • Difficulty discriminating among conflicting noises. • Cautious in CHOICES as with being concerned with accuracy and correctness. • While a positive characteristic it may make them appear to be slower. • EXISTING KNOWLEDGE. • May seek to relate new information to older existing • information. • (see Glass 1996; Twitchell, 1996)

18. OTHER ISSUES OF COGNITION • FAMILIARITY. To reduce the demands of speed and timing it is helpful to create familiarity with the setting, information or task. • MEMORY. Has a role in both the acquisition of and retrieval of NEW information. • Teach and encourage the use of memory strategies. • Generally , in regard to NORMAL AGE-RELATED COGNITIVE CHANGE: • Older persons need bit more time to process information or to respond. • The more complex the task the higher the demand. Reduce demand by lessening demands of speed and increasing time. • (see Glass 1996; Twitchell, 1996)

19. MAKING PRESENTATIONS AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS • Simplicity is best • Reduce the amount of information that must be processed at one time to reduce the processing load. • Talk slowly • Fast speech is more challenging to older adults. Rates of 120 wpm are the most difficult for older learners. • Emphasize important points with intonation, pauses, and by stressing important words. • Organize the structure and text • Emphasize important ideas, clearly state the objectives of the lesson or presentation, and use advance organizers. • Provide examples and procedural steps • Concepts and inferences are a bit more challenging for older adults; • provide concrete examples and procedural steps when possible.

20. AV and Technology • Follow earlier suggestions for presentations and discussions. • Keep overheads simple and focused on a single or few concepts. • The greater the amount of information the greater are the demands of processing. • If a great amount of information must covered include pauses, summaries, cues, and other aids to minimize processing demands. • Be aware of impact of equipment • Equipment can add noise to the room, minimize when possible • and reseat if needed. • Position equipment to avoid straining to see or hear. • Dry-Erase boards • Follow earlier suggestions for presentations and discussions. • Avoid overloading one area with information, writing small, or just • randomly scattering information across the board.

21. Written Materials • Reading • Differences in reading speeds between younger and older adults. • A speed between 102 to 120 wpm is optimal for processing by older adults. • Allow older learners an adequate amount of time to read AND encourage them to read slowly. • Though older adults do read more slowly than those who are younger they generate more ideas and ideas that are central to the reading. • Keep Text Organized • Place important ideas high in the organizational structure. • Use categories, groups, lists, and chunks. • Allow for timefor rehearsal of information AND for pauses • For note takinganddiscussion.

22. SELF-PACE • Pacing their own work allows the older learner to spend as much time as needed to study the information in written information. • MOTIVATION • Though not age related, if learning seems meaningless or trivial the older adult is less inclined to go through the motions of learning than are younger students. • (pages 19-22 see Glass 1996; Morrell & Echt,1997; Twitchell, 1996)

23. Examples Alignment styles This is left justified text and is easier for older adults to read. The lines are easier to follow. This style reduces demands upon the cognitive system. This is centered justified text and is more difficult for older adults to read. This style increases demands upon the cognitive system. • (Morrell & Echt, 1997)

24. Conclusion Suggested techniques are “good practice” and serve all students !

25. References & Bibliography • Glass, J.C. (1996). Factors Affecting Learning in Older Adults, Educational Gerontology, 22 (4), 359-372. • Morrell, R.W., & Echt, K.V. (1997). Designing Written Instructions for Older Adults: Learning to Use Computers. In A.D. Fisk and W.A. Rogers (Eds.), Handbook of Human Factors and the Older Adult (pp.335-361). San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Inc. • Read, D.R., (April/May 2004). Tapping the Evolving Seniors Market, Community College Journal, 45-50. • Twitchell, S., Cherry, K.E., & Trott, J.W. (1996). Educational Strategies for Older Learners: Suggestions from Cognitive Aging Research, Educational Gerontology, 22(2), 169-181. • Wiener, Linda, September 2007, The Role of Community Colleges in an Aging Society, AARP Office of Academic Affairs, Occasional Papers, Number 3. • Lakin, M.B., Mullane, L., & S. P. Robinson, (2007). Framing New Terrain: Older Adults and Higher Education, American Council on Education, MetLife Foundation. • Lakin, M.B., Mullaen, L. & S.P. Robinson, (2008). Mapping New Directions: Higher Education for Older Adults, American Council on Education, MetLife Foundation.