Geragogy, refers to the management of teaching and learning strategies where the target audience is older adult learners.
When working with older adult learners you should consider: (1) eyesight, (2) hearing, (3) memory, (4) motor Skills, (5) other health issues, (6) insecurity, (7) performance anxiety.
Older adults learners share many traits with adult learners of all ages, check out the 10 Characteristics Of Adult Learners.
How to pronounce geragogy (ge·ra·go·gy)
Let’s take a deeper look at each one.
Physical Considerations With Teaching Older Adults
■ Eyesight— After a certain age, adults’ eyesight begins to diminish and require “reading” glasses to see small words and/or text. They will appreciate larger fonts and writing when available.
■ Hearing— Can also be difficult at times, so it’s important as a teacher to point to whatever you are referring to, face the learner when speaking, and speak a little more loudly.
Adult learners may ask the teacher to repeat something, which you should, but it is helpful to repeat important points even when no request is given.
■ Memory— Older adults appreciate and have patience for reviewing material. It is okay to teach at a slower pace and vary the practice styles which boosts memory retention and brainpower.
If you want your learner to grasp something new and little bit challenging, keep circling back to it throughout the lesson and again at the end of the lesson.
■ Motor Skills—Depending on the content, finger control, hand eye coordination, or other body movements can be challenging for beginner older adult learners.
Learners should be encouraged to practice before bed, as sleep helps to embed new motor skills into long-term memory.
■ Other Health Issues— Aging causes bones to shrink and muscle to lose strength and flexibility. Diseases such as arthritis make it more difficult for older adults to move their fingers.
According to the National Council on Aging, about 92 percent of seniors have at least one chronic disease and 77 percent have at least two.
Emotional Considerations With Teaching Older Adults
■ Insecurity—The greatest hurdle to progress in a new skill is an older adult’s lack of confidence in their learning capacity due to a perceived age barrier.
There is a false perception that at a certain age you lose the ability to learn new things, such as languages or instruments.
Without being patronizing, the teacher can be supportive and encouraging.
■ Performance Anxiety— Many older learners fear failure and are more anxious than younger learners, perhaps this is because they accept the stereotype of the older learner as a poor learner or because of previous unsuccessful attempts to learn.
A key role of the teacher is to reduce anxiety and build trust and self confidence in the learner.
Doing things such as:
- Give older adult learners more time to complete activities.
- Build empathy between the yourself, the learner and others in the classroom.
- Work with maximum two resources at a time, manageable with two hands in order not to cause anxiety or confusion in older adult learners.
- Reduce the focus on error correction to build learners’ self-confidence and to promote participation.
- Avoid timed tests which may make older adult learners anxious.
- Promote a friendly and humane atmosphere that would support learning.
- Find out what your older adult learners’ motivations are and adjust your methodology accordingly.
Conclusion
“If you pay attention to the considerations outlined in this guide, you should soon start seeing better results from your older adult learners.
Maybe you have a consideration that I didn’t include? I’m always interested in hearing your thoughts, so don’t be shy, leave a comment, and let me know what you think.”