The role of noncognitive factors in the cognitive performance of older adults

This review examines the available evidence on the impact of noncognitive factors on the cognitive performance of young and older adults. After considering studies organized around a framework of cohort-associated modifiers, motive states, task and measurement factors, and environmental effects, the observation is offered that noncognitive factors and age-related deficits in cognitive processes are related and account, in part, for age differences in cognitive performance. It is argued that the time may be ripe for educational psychologists to renew and to expand their contributions to the adult development literature. Several areas of research pertinent to educational psychologists are identified.     

Participation in learning and wellbeing among older adults

The objective of this research was to identify the effects of participation in learning on the subjective wellbeing of older adults. Data were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a large-scale, nationally representative survey of those aged 50 and above. The survey contains several wellbeing measures and information on three types of learning: formal courses, music/arts/evening classes and gym/exercise classes. Multiple regression analyses were applied to the change in wellbeing outcomes between two survey waves. The key finding was that music, arts and evening classes were significantly associated with changes in each of the measures of subjective wellbeing. Formal courses and gym/exercise classes were not significantly associated with wellbeing, after controlling for other factors.     

Role of cognitive prompts in video caregiving training for older adults: optimizing deep and surface learning

Enhancing the cognitive functionality of digital technology can be critical in learning complex topics like caregiving for older adults. This study examines the deployment of cognitive prompts in video-based training to optimize older adults’ cognitive information process in both deep and surface learning. The path analysis revealed the relationship among cognitive prompts, crystallized knowledge and learning outcomes showing crystallized knowledge as a significant mediator between cognitive prompts and learning outcomes. Additionally, cognitive prompts were shown to be significant in activating older learners’ prior knowledge, rendering the learning process more meaningful and purposeful for older adults.     

A consideration of the essential differences in the provision of special education for children and for adults

Peter Watson, a lecturer in Adult Education in the Continuing Educations Unit at the University of Leeds, considers the wider implications of the differences between special education for children and the educational provision for adults with special needs.     

Lifelong learning and the continued participation of older Norwegian adults in employment

The number of people aged 60 and over across the globe is expected to double by 2050, reaching a share of more than 20 percent of the population total. Governments are therefore taking more and more policy actions to encourage ageing workers to extend their working lives and their employers to retain them. According to the OECD lifelong learning opportunities and inclusive labour markets will be essential to ensuring that workers of all educational backgrounds have the possibility of extending their working lives. This article examines the relationship between adult education completed after age 40 and the subsequent active participation of older adults in employment, using individual register data from Statistics Norway. The results show a substantial effect of upgrading formal education on subsequent labour market participation. Overall effects are quite similar for males and females. Attaining a lower level tertiary degree has the largest impact on labour market participation both for males and females. Completing a secondary education has a strong, long term impact among males. The results suggest that facilitating access to formal education among older workers may be an important contribution to extending working lives.     

The response of higher education to older adults: A federal perspective

This article examines and describes the responses of higher education institutions in meeting the needs of older people. Specifically, the article describes the concern of the Federal Council on the Aging for increased educational offerings for older people at American universities and colleges. It provides an overview of the demographic factors creating a graying society, discusses the challenge that aging presents to higher education, and cites, with examples, steps to be taken by higher education institutions to directly or indirectly benefit older persons.     

Prompting retrieval during monitoring and self-regulated learning in older and younger adults

Metacognition and Learning - We evaluated age differences in the relationship between judgments of learning (JOLs) and the choice to restudy a subset of items under two conditions: 1) when a...     

Mindfulness,adult learning and therapeutic education: integrating the cognitive and affective domains of learning

Although it has been given qualified approval by a number of philosophers of education, the so‐called ‘therapeutic turn’ in education has been the subject of criticism by several commentators on post‐compulsory and adult learning over the last few years. A key feature of this alleged development in recent educational policy is said to be the replacement of the traditional goals of knowledge and understanding with personal and social objectives concerned with enhancing and developing confidence and self‐esteem in learners. After offering some critical observations on these developments, I suggest that there are some educationally justifiable goals underpinning what has been described as a therapeutic turn. Whilst accepting that ‘self‐esteem’ and cognate concepts cannot provide a general end or universal aim of education, the therapeutic function—the affective domain of learning—is more valuable and significant than is generally acknowledged. This claim is justified by an examination of the concept of ‘mindfulness’ which, it is argued, can be an immensely powerful and valuable notion that is integrally connected with the centrally transformative and developmental nature of learning and educational activity at all levels. The incorporation of mindfulness strategies within adult learning programmes may go some way towards re‐connecting the cognitive and affective dimensions of education.     

Reviewing affective,behavioural and cognitive learning gains in higher education

The notion of learning gains has increasingly become apparent within the higher education literature and is gaining traction in government policies in the US and UK, reflecting a desire to “quantify” the impact of university study and teaching excellence in particular. Given the increased policy focus on learning gains, it is essential that researchers and policy makers are informed about common used approaches to measure learning gains, and their expected range and magnitude. Therefore, a systematic literature search was undertaken. 52 studies (n?=?41,009) were coded into affective, behavioural and/or cognitive learning gains. The review found a rich but diverse variety of adopted methodologies and approaches to “measure” affective, behavioural and cognitive (ABC) learning gains. Nonetheless, there is a lack of consistency in the ways in which learning gains are currently measured and reported. These inconsistencies and limitations hamper effective comparisons of learning gains and teaching excellence. We recommend a greater emphasis on longitudinal measurement of learning gains using validated approaches.     

Relationships between motivational strategies and cognitive learning in distance education courses

This study examines the relationships between students’ academic levels, the use of motivational regulation strategies, and cognitive learning strategies. A total of 141 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in online distance courses participated in the study. The findings show that students use different motivational regulation strategies and cognitive learning strategies depending on their academic levels. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses using two dependent variables (i.e., surface level learning strategy and deep processing level learning strategy) indicate that a surface level learning strategy (i.e., rehearsal) and deep processing level strategies (i.e., elaboration, organization, and critical thinking) are predicted by different sets of motivational regulation strategies after controlling for academic level and age. The results provide distance educators and instructional designers with practical suggestions on how to support undergraduate and graduate students’ motivational needs and further promote their use of cognitive learning strategies in online distance education programs in higher education.     

Issues in teaching and learning for older adults in Hong Kong and Australia

ABSTRACT

There has not been ample recent research on teaching older adults. However, as described below, there is mounting research in how and why older adults want to learn. This brief discussion is derived from work undertaken for a workshop in Hong Kong on issues in teaching older adults. It combines recent research on learning and teaching in higher education as it applies to older adults. The paper addresses: learning and ageing, learning choices, an information processing view of learning, deep and surface learning, teaching and learning approaches, formal, non-formal and informal learning, teaching roles, evaluation, and technology. Some sections are exemplified with information from teaching older adults in Australia and Hong Kong     

通识教育下的逻辑教学考量

通识教育理念是通过培养大学生的通识思维能力,提高受教育者的综合素养。而逻辑学求真的特性使其与通识教育有着近乎一致的培养目标,即提高受教育者的逻辑思维素养。然而基于外部因素的影响和内部因素的制约,逻辑教学遭到一定的冲击和削弱。为此,要实现逻辑学通识课的目的,就必须在教学目标、内容、方法等方面进行系统化的研究和实践,打造精品课程。     

关于研究生教育的理性思考

研究生教育的快速发展要求我们对研究生教育的发展定位和价值取向进行反思,从哲学层面思考研究生教育本质内涵.研究生教育是全人格的教育而不是片面人格的教育,是研究性教育而不是知识性的教育,是开放的教育而不是封闭的教育,是多样化的教育而不是单一化的教育.     

Long-term effects of leisure education on leisure needs and stress in older adults

We examined whether a 12-week leisure education program could promote leisure autonomy and leisure competence and reduce stress in older adults. Forty subjects were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. Before the experiment, pretest data were collected using leisure autonomy, leisure competence, and stress scales. After the experiment, posttest data were collected using the same scales; follow-up test data were collected a year later. These data were evaluated through an analysis of covariance. The results indicated that the average posttest and follow-up test scores of leisure autonomy and leisure competence in the experimental group were significantly higher than the corresponding scores in the control group and that the average posttest and follow-up test scores of stress in the experimental group were significantly lower than the corresponding scores in the control group. In the experimental group, the average posttest and follow-up test scores of leisure autonomy and leisure competence were significantly higher than the average pretest scores of leisure autonomy and leisure competence, whereas the average posttest and follow-up test scores of stress were significantly lower than the average pretest scores of stress. Therefore, health care practitioners should adopt the provision of leisure education as a priority to promote leisure autonomy and leisure competence and reduce stress in older adults.     

The application of cognitive learning theory to criminal justice education

Most criminal justice programs began as extensions of vocational technical training courses, but within the last decade they have begun to parallel the liberal arts programs originally proposed. As a result of this reorientation, criminal justice instructors lack many of the instructional methods used by colleagues in other fields. In addition, the dual nature of criminal justice instruction, requiring both experience and theory, places demands on criminal justice instructors that their colleagues may not experience. The field needs an instructional approach that blends the best of the vocational aspects and the theoretical underpinnings. This paper reviews cognitive learning theory, specifically Kolb's experiential learning model. Recommendations are offered for the application of this model to instruction in criminal justice courses.     

Legal and definitional issues affecting the identification and education of adults with specific learning disabilities in adult education programs

Although the exact prevalence is not determined, a noticeable subset of individuals who enroll in adult education and training programs have either diagnosed or undiagnosed specific learning disabilities (SLD). Understanding SLD is important basic information for adult educators to inform program policies as well as determine effective instructional practices. This article discusses the development of definitions of SLD and current agreement on the nature of SLD relevant to working with adults. It concludes with implications for adult education programs.     

Lifelong education for older adults in Malta: Current trends and future visions

With European demographic developments causing a decline of the available workforce in the foreseeable future and the unsustainability of dominant pay-as-you-go pension systems (where contributions from the current workforce sustain pensioners), governments need to come up with strategies to deal with this upcoming challenge and to adjust their policies. Based on a study carried out between September 2009 and May 2010, this article evaluates the policies guiding late-life education in Malta, as well as the local plethora of learning opportunities for older adult education, and participation rates. The Maltese government is committed to supporting the inclusion of older persons (aged 60+) in lifelong education policies and programmes, to the extent that local studies have uncovered a recent rise in the overall participation of older adults in formal, non-formal and informal areas of learning. While the present and future prospects for late-life education in Malta seem promising, a critical scrutiny of present ideologies and trends finds the field to be no more than seductive rhetoric. Though the coordination of late-life education in Malta does result in various social benefits to older learners and Maltese society in general, it also occurs within five intersecting lines of inequality ?C namely an economic rationale, elitism, gender bias, the urban-rural divide and third ageism. This article ends by proposing policy recommendations for the future of late-life education.     

A model on the cognitive and affective factors for the use of representations at the learning of decimals

In a previous article of the same journal, we have discussed the interrelations of students’ beliefs and self‐efficacy beliefs for the use of representations and their respective cognitive performance on the learning of fraction addition. In the present paper, we confirm a similar structure of cognitive and affective factors on using representations for the concept of decimals and mainly we discuss the various interrelations among those factors. Data were collected from 1701 students in Grades 5–8 (11–14‐years‐old). Results revealed that multiple‐representation flexibility, ability on solving problems with various modes of representation, beliefs about the use of representations and self‐efficacy beliefs about using them constructed an integrated model with strong interrelations that has differences and similarities with the respective model concerning the concept of fractions.