Education
Current trends and research findings
Education programs offer older adults not only places to learn, but also opportunities for social interaction. Congress has explicitly supported education for older adults by declaring, in the Older Americans Act, that they are entitled to equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to meaningful activity within the widest range of civic, cultural, education and training, and recreational opportunities. Furthermore, the Aging Vision Statement indicates that older Texans should have the opportunity to secure education.
Decades of research in cognitive science has shown that people can learn and retain new information throughout their life spans. However, many factors can negatively influence the way older people learn and retrieve information. For example, poor hearing and vision can make it harder to quickly and accurately perceive new information. Furthermore, some older adults experience changes in their ability to retrieve stored information, which may be attributed in part to difficulties in distinguishing a specific piece of data from the vast amount of information they have accumulated over their lifetime. Research has also established a correlation between education and older adults' health, longevity and economic status.
Updated: November 2, 2007
