Archived Information

Lifelong Learning for All: What Can Be Done to Promote Lifelong
Learning?

**Günther Dohmen**

**German Institute for Adult Education**

**Germany**

Problems with the Participation of Older Adults in Further Education

Abstinence of Older Adults from Further Education

It is a well-known international experience that people at an advanced
age---about 55 to 60 and over, and then especially from the age of 65
onwards---take much less advantage of further education offers than do
younger people. (2, 81, 106, 108)

In Germany, people aged 65 or over (about 15 percent of the total
population) account for only about 6 percent of the participants in
further education programs, even in those with a more general
orientation and in the "Volkshochschulen," the adult education center,
which are the organizations most frequented in comparison by older
adults. Here, the senior citizens most often choose courses on local
history and regional studies (20.8 percent), arts (1.8 percent) or
history (13.5 percent). (20)

People of an advanced age avoid most strikingly targeted learning
courses that require active involvement and are aimed at improving and
measuring the learners' performance. This can be seen even in language
courses, which adult education centers often provide especially to
elderly people, who are rather fond of traveling abroad: 32 percent of
the courses provided by adult education centers to older adults are
language courses, but only 5, 8 percent of the participants in these
courses are older adults. (20)

This reticence may be found as well with regard to computer training
courses. In Germany, people over the age of 60 account for just 1-
percent of the participants. (1, 71)

Aggravation of General Attendance Problems Caused by Old Age

Beyond all differences in terms of biography, educational background or
sex, the notion largely applies that most difficulties of general nature
with further education intensify in old age.

It is a known fact that people who express their interest in certain
topics do not necessarily attend corresponding further education
courses. This is especially true for elderly people. Health and "keeping
fit" range uppermost among the interests of most senior citizens (42, p.
28--29) but only 6.8 percent of the participants in health education
courses provided by adult education centers are older adults. (20)

It is also a known fact that participation in further education mostly
depends on a successful educational background. This, too, applies
especially to the elderly people. (52, p. 37--38)

Most people from the large group of adults not taking part in further
education programs---in Germany about 58 percent of the adult
population, (33 p. 23) would feel uncomfortable with the idea of
attending school-like lessons in educational programs which causes in
them unpleasant reminiscences of their own schooldays---pressure to do
well, examinations, class tests, fears of failure, or looking foolish.
Mature adults are not likely to expose themselves again voluntarily to
such troubles.

In the elderly, this school frustration blockage plays an even more
determining role: Their readiness to attend an educational course
decreases with a marked school-like nature of this course. It increases
if the course content may be related to practical contexts of real life.
(54 p. 138)

> The Intensified Impact of Individualization

Another factor of increasing importance in old age is the
individualization of life and learning. (36, 52, p. 23--27) Growing
older, people increasingly follow their own way, away from others. (29)
That is why older people have difficulty in adapting themselves to rigid
curricula and learning forms.

Learning in elderly people is, by its very nature, not aimed at
collecting supplies of knowledge for the future. They usually wish to
learn things that appear relevant to them at the present time---for
example in a situation that requires their action or in a crisis. (52,
p.145) Further education programs mostly do not provide for this in a
sufficiently direct and specific manner. Instead of accepting the detour
of systematically structured long-term courses, older adults therefore
often prefer other forms of learning, as being more helpful and
purposive. This could be, for example, open exchange of experience, an
opportunity of self-directed communication with other people having the
same questions and problems, and with experts in the matter. (42, p.
64--66, 91) This means: individual counseling becomes more important to
older learners than general information, and the telephone becomes the
most important connection with the world outside. (42, p. 74)

> Men Staying Away from Further Education

Elderly people taking part in further education programs are mostly
women. In further education courses for elderly people the percentage of
women is between 80 percent and 90 percent, whereas elderly men are
almost not reached at all. (7,54, p. 139)

This has to do with the stronger orientation of men towards vocational
training and continuing education, improvement of careers prospects,
chances of being promoted, and social recognition. Viewed from this
perspective, a more generally orientated further education after ones
working life is "pointless." After leaving the job most men will lack
opportunities to make use of their professional know-how and skills on
which their male self-image is largely based. The more specialized one's
professional know-how is, the more difficult it will be to constantly
continue to learn on the basis of the prior professional background.

Leaving the job means a break in one's orientation towards life and
learning. In any case it means a decisive change in roles, which usually
proves harder to men than women. "Lifelong learning," then, does not
just mean a lifelong continuation of learning, but has to cope with
difficult biographical

changes. (54, p. 79--80, 97) Further education after leaving the job
mostly requires the development of new approaches, interests, and
skills. This often represents an obstacle difficult to overcome.

Also, men usually fear dependency and compulsion to prove themselves in
further education more strongly than women do.

The chance provided by further education courses, to establish new
social contact appeals, seemingly, more to elderly women than men who
rather have a tendency to retire into themselves or the intimacy of a
club. (42, p. 75)

Special Fears of Elderly People

With advancing age people feel more unsure about their own ability to
keep pace with the learner group and more afraid of appearing dense and
senile. Elderly people therefore are often deterred by performance
comparison with the young---not least because they cannot elude the
impact of societal deficit attributions. (42, p. 64--66, 82, p. 62)

Other determining reasons for elderly people's abstinence from further
education include a latent fear of dependence and incapacitation. The
wish to maintain one's own freedom of decisionmaking, autonomy, and
independence (42, p. 35) causes a particular sensitivity to any form of
spoon-feeding or incapacitation, heteronym, and extrinsic control in
their own further education process. (52, p. 145) They wish to take
advantage of their " late freedom" (91) after the retirement and
maintain it to the greatest possible extent. This is why they object to
live or learn according to instructions of others if there is no
necessity. (42, p. 40) This is also why they try to avoid being placed
into a compulsory learning situation---or similarly, in an old people's
home.

As a consequence, elderly people have a marked predilection for lectures
or open discussion groups---in contrast to compulsory courses---when
taking part in organized forms of further education.

In this context, the form of the traditional lecture is one of the
reasons---alongside the higher standards and prestige of
universities---for the popularity of "Seniors' Universities" or "Third
Age Universities" with elderly people. (4, 16, 37, 95, 100)

The "Natural" Learning of Older Adults

We see that the lesser participation of older adults in further
education is not due to a lack of interest. It does not mean either that
elderly people are no longer willing or able to learn. In actual fact,
elderly people use different, more self-determined and open learning
forms.

Eighty percent of elderly people learn regularly by means of reading,
travelling, films, television, or magazines, but only 10 percent of them
attend further education courses. (52, p. 17, 99)

Thus, a research project on education for older adults, carried out
between 1991--94 in Germany, could come to the conclusion: "It is an
important finding that elderly people have by no means stopped learning
in old age, although a vast majority of them are keeping away from
institutional educational offers." (54, p. 138)

Language and Environmental Barriers

Elderly people coming from educationally or linguistically deprived
backgrounds have particular difficulties in coping with the elaborated
forms of communication and language that characterize most of the
further educational programs.

For persons coming from a different linguistic background, this
middle-class language represents a serious obstacle to participation in
educational programs that are mostly based on verbal communication. That
is why this group tends to restrict itself to informal learning, which
bears more relation to practical situations and phenomena of everyday
life.

Persons from educationally deprived backgrounds also have to reckon with
their social environment disapproving of any apparent stepping out of
line towards "higher" educational realms. This entails social pressure
to prove oneself and corresponding fears of failure and identity crises.
All that may be largely avoided by concentrating on informal learning
forms, which are closely related to everyday life. (10)

Little Consideration being given to Personal Experience

As learning in elderly people is very much characterized by their prior
experience, the connection of this experience to the new learning
demands represents a fundamental learning prerequisite for them. (14,
28, p. 39--43, 105)

Such connection proves difficult to realize in the context of
specialized and systematically structured courses. As most of one's own
experience has derived from practical life, real events, encounters, and
situations of crisis, it is difficult to connect to a type of learning
that is not based on real experience and situations, but on concrete
examples taken from the learner's world.

Later on, however, a form of learning that is more strongly related to
situations and experience (14, 28) must be accompanied by reflective
processing. And this step towards the recognition of conditions, rules
and contexts, their condensation into concepts and the approach to a
more elaborated and abstract formal language is a particular critical
one in the learning process of older adults.

External Barriers to Participation

External barriers, too, contribute considerably to the low participation
rate of older people in institutional further education programs.

It is obvious that high course fees may represent a major hindrance to
participation, especially to old-age pensioners. This is one of the
general obstacles to learning that become aggravated in old age. Others
include lack of transport, solitary, and badly lit footpaths, bad
weather, and cramped and uncomfortable rooms.

Equally important are the obstacles specifically caused by old age.
Elderly people often have poor sight and hearing, which means that small
prints and speaking in a low voice hinder them in taking up the
information.

Furthermore, elderly people are usually less mobile. They do not like
going out in the evening when their energy starts falling off. Arduous
climbing of stairs, draught, and fear of infections, while their immune
systems are loosing their robustness, cause older people to prefer less
troublesome learning opportunities within their own four walls such as
self-learning with the aid of written instructions and a telephone
advice service. (60, p. 319)

Elderly people, however, lack the particular learning forms, independent
of time and place, that have been developed for an ad-hoc self-learning
with support from the distance. These were partly designed within the
framework of external studies and learning with the new media (21) and
they are tailored to suit systematically organized long-term programs
rather than the elderly's studying at home.

Distinguishing Features of the Learning Process in Older People and
Didactic Consequences

Basic Understanding of Human Learning

Basically, we understand by "learning" the procedures of mental
processing (understanding, organizing, and interpreting) of impressions
and experiences, and the constructive development of coherent knowledge
and dispositions to responsible behavior.

This conception of learning represents a model, which is largely
independent of factors such as age, sex, or biographical background. The
single learning processes, however, which are implied by this model, may
differ considerably, according to framework conditions, the learners'
qualifications and interests, or the individual situations.

Decreasing Learning Ability in Old Age?

There is a broad academic consensus---in Germany and at the
international level---on the view that decline in physical strength with
advancing age is not necessarily combined with a parallel decline in
mental and learning ability of elderly people. (29) Age represents one
factor among others (such as educational background, stimulating
environment, health, and foremost, the individual life history)
determining the learning ability of elderly people. (8, 41, 68, 69, 70,
96) (82, p. 52--53)

During the past 30 years intelligence research, in particular, has
brought about more differentiated concepts of the development of mental
ability. The "Konstrukt" (constructed term) " intelligence" is
increasingly used to define the totality of abilities needed for
information processing and intellectual mastery of one's tasks in life.
These abilities include, for example, the construction of meaningfully
coherent knowledge obtained from single disparate impressions, the
recognition of patterns and rules, the forming of concepts and
"Superzeichen" (supersigns, generic terms), translation and transfer
ability, open-mindedness and readiness for changes, and creative
interpretation and innovation. (82)

We know today that the various intelligence factors are determined by
individual experience and educational background, by society's
expectations and self-images of elderly people rather than biological
age itself. (82, p. 36--50)

Although biological age no doubt affects intelligence, its impact varies
considerably in nature, enhancing some abilities whilst inhibiting
others. Therefore, it would be better to speak of alterations rather
than decline caused by old age within the intelligence structures. At
the same time as short-term memory and pace of learning may decline,
expressiveness, accuracy, and discernment may grow with advancing age.
(29)

It is possible to further the development of learning ability in older
adults through training and lifelong learning.

Here is a main reason for elderly people to continue with learning. The
desire to maintain one's potential and keep mentally fit ranks high
among motives for older adults to engage in further education
activities. (48, p. 49) Keeping fit by learning means, especially, to
keep reinterpreting prior experience in the light of new experience.

The Impact of Negative Cliches of Elderly People

Although the theory concerning an overall decline in intelligence and
learning ability in old age is no longer tenable and therefore cannot
account for the low participation of older adults in further education
programs, (35, 38) negative stereotypes of "old people" being mentally
inflexible continue to exert a strong influence in society. (42, p.
64--65). Prejudices concerning the rigidity, denseness, conservative
attitudes, and closed-mindedness towards new ideas and developments in
old age continue to represent widely held views on elderly people.
Sometimes they will lead to a stigmatization of older adults as
"Gruftis" (after the German word "Grufi" = vault). (49)

As these extrinsic attributions may partly turn into self-attributions,
they affect not only public funding of further education programs for
senior citizens but also self-assessment and self-confidence in older
adults. (112)

Thus, information on a large scale about the latest findings of
gerontology proves to be of vital importance for the endeavors to
mobilize education for older adults in the era of lifelong learning.
(109)

Reduced Pace of Learning in Old Age?

It is a commonly held view that people learn more slowly with advancing
age. This is only partly confirmed by empirical studies. (70, 82, p. 56)

Most older adults need more time for a learning processing of
information and experience that do not fit into the existing, earlier
developed imagination, and interpretation patterns. On the other hand,
learning processes that may be integrated into familiar interpretation
frameworks may develop more quickly in older adults than in younger
people thanks to their greater routine.

These differences in the pace of learning are apparently related to the
fact that older adults possess more relevant experience. With an
increased volume and variety of already stored experiences and patterns,
any new piece of information will be compared and related to an equally
increased amount of insights, ideas, and interpretation patterns. For an
adequate incorporation of the new information it may also be necessary
to restructure the existing sedimentary knowledge, which is more
extensive and complex than in younger people. And this may, of course,
take more time if the new information appears to be not simply a variant
on something already known or familiar. (29)

With a more extensive repertoire of experiential knowledge, processes of
selection or retrieval of relevant information may also become more time
consuming.

It may be necessary to allow more time to older people when confronting
them with new information or innovative learning. If possible, options
for classifying the new information and hints for recognition should be
given, for example "advance organizers" according to Ausubel. (6.29, 82,
p. 56, 89)

Meaningful Learning

Further studies have shown that elderly people have greater difficulty
in learning and retaining things, which are not meaningful and coherent
(e.g., arbitrary sequences of numbers). (82, p. 57) This may, in part,
account for their poorer performance in memory tests of this kind.

This means that in order to promote lifelong learning even in old age it
will be necessary to concentrate on meaningful learning---rather than on
meaningless memory training exercises---and to enable, facilitate, and
support the ability to establish during the learning process connections
with plausible contexts of ideas and needs.

And why should older adults learn things that make no sense to them?

Experiential Learning

Elderly people (and different cohorts of them) have more and different
experience related to historically different situations on which their
learning is based. (54, p. 26--62)

Experiential schemes that have developed over a long period of time tend
to become more fixed

rather than change fundamentally (54, p. 27). With elderly people, it
will thus be necessary to include a higher extent their individual
experiential schemes into the learning process and, possibly, to break
up and re­structure them. (29)

If older adults are to be involved more intensively in continuous
lifelong learning, it will be necessary to develop new approaches to
better linking new information and experience to prior experience, which
is still present in the memory (especially in the long-term memory).
(59)

Learning in View of Applicability

With advancing age, most people prefer to learn things that are directly
applicable. They usually learn in order to improve their ability to deal
with real problems and situations in their lives.

Very often they are also more impatient in this, wishing to satisfy
their pressing needs directly, without having to make the detour of a
systematic training course.

Elderly people---if one wishes to encourage them towards lifelong
learning---must be given stronger stimuli and learning aids whose
content should be related to real situations or problems. This means
that corresponding modules must be developed to support a problem
solving learning that is related more clearly to real situations, cases,
and practical action. (13, 52, p. 145*,* 111)

Individualized Learning

Due to the differences in the socialization process of individuals
within their families, workplaces, and society, and the different ways
in which individuals respond to these influences, people at an advanced
age usually have developed in most diverse manners and are more
different from one another than in their younger days.

In his comprehensive comparative analysis of international developments
in adult education and education, Alan Knox comes to the conclusion
that: "Diversity increases as people become older, therefore, program
option should be greater," (i.e., "a great variety of educational
opportunities should be available to be responsive to the older
population." (60, p. 318--319)

As the overall trend towards individualization is reinforced in old age,
learning and learning support has to be developed in individually
different ways. That is to say, individual learning processes need a
greater variety of learning opportunities and learning aids.

One possible consequence may be the so-called "contract-learning" which
means learning according to individual contracts between the educational
institution and the person interested in learning. (21, p. 76--83)

Open, Life-Related Learning

A form of learning that is more clearly related to individual interests
and backgrounds and also to practical applicability in real situations
not only requires individual counseling, it is also necessary to develop
more flexible and open learning opportunities, which may be stimulating
and useful in different individual learning processes.

Traditional systems of teaching and learning are not usually open or
flexible enough in this respect.

In many countries, education for older adults therefore has now been
opened to a greater variety of informal learning forms, a wider range of
individual learning opportunities in situations with practical

demands, including jointly practiced "learning by doing," and new forms
of self-organized and self-directed learning, including jointly
practiced open learning with the elderly exchanging their individual
"know how" and "know how to know" with one another. (30, 54, p. 140, 60,
p. 317)

More Independent and Self-Directed Learning

One of the main reasons for elderly people not to take part in further
education programs is their fear of being instructed and controlled like
pupils, or being looked after overattentively.

A specific sensitivity to social tendencies to regard elderly people as
deficient and incapacitated, and hence lavish care on them (42, p. 35,
40) deters older adults from participating in further education programs
specifically designed for senior citizens. (54) "Avoidance of
dependency" (60, p. 319) is a basic motive of older adults---in life as
in learning.

On the other hand, many older adults feel unsure about the extent to
which they are still mentally fit. This keeps them from attending
general further educational courses. They fear comparison with the
younger participants there and are afraid of looking foolish in front of
younger people.

As a consequence, older adults prefer to attend, if ever, arrangements
allowing for noncommittal listening and uncontrolled self-determined
learning.

As it is impossible to properly support the completely different and
specific learning processes in elderly people by means of organized and
more or less standardized training programs that have been

designed for larger groups of students. Education for the elderly will
increasingly have to adapt itself to a new kind of learning, organized
to a higher degree by the elderly themselves and taking place in open
and varied learning situations.

Self-directed learning is arguably the most adequate response to
individualization occurring in the field of lifelong learning. It has
also the potential of developing a civic involvement in further
education in front of authoritarian traditions. (30, 112)

New Approaches in Educational Policy towards More Involvement of Older
Adults in Lifelong Learning

Improving Framework Conditions

To surmount external barriers to learning it will be necessary to
provide at local level---apart from financial subsidies, not to be
discussed here---more access opportunities to further education for
older people. This may be done, for example, by improving public
transports, in accordance with the hours of the lessons/lectures,
arranging (private) transport services, or by means of increasing
decentralization of educational facilities. (11)

Equally important is greater flexibility in scheduling so as to make
offers better fit into the individually different time "blanks" of older
adults interested in further education. ("Zeitfenster" for lifelong
learning, 80.)

All this, however, would be insufficient if it is not accompanied by
clearly laid out information on the totality of educational provision,
qualification opportunities, and counseling services available at local
level for citizens This should also include an integrated network of all
formal and informal learning opportunities, expert supports, and
hotlines. (28, p. 88)

To overcome mental barriers caused by reminiscences of school
frustration, it is necessary to develop new and more appealing open
forms of teaching and cooperating such as "learning offices,"
"learning-service-centers," "learning shops," "learning clubs,"
"learning cafes," "learning workshops," "learning paths," and "learning
parks." (30)

The development and enhancement of informal learning opportunities in
connection with real life, i.e., relating to most varied activities
(work, travelling, shopping, and watching TV) appears to be especially
important in this context. (30, p. 29--38)

Developing Holistic Learning Opportunities Close to Life

All people continue to learn even in old age in as much as they take in
new information, try to orient themselves in new situations, and adapt
to changing demands. (58)

This natural but often unconscious learning that takes place throughout
one's life practice may be exploited and further developed to form the
basis and starting point for a permanently continued lifelong learning
of adults, even of those elderly people who in the past did not
participate in organized forms of further education. (34)

Developing learning opportunities, learning stimuli, and learning aids
in the learner's environment seems to be the most effective way to
further this natural and holistic learning. This brings about the
concept of a "learning society," where everybody will encounter learning
opportunities at any time and in almost any place and where educational
institutions will join and support the more extensive network of
manifold formal and informal learning opportunities, open counseling
services, learning partnerships, and communication opportunities. (28,
p. 61--73)

Why should senior citizens not become important supporters and frequent
users of these new learning networks within the forthcoming learning
society?

This "natural" learning in a stimulating environment basically means
learning in situations that challenge people to learn. As a consequence,
learning arrangements and aids referring to this kind of learning should
concentrate on a situation-based learning. Instead of prefabricated
knowledge, the learner will be confronted with realistic and challenging
situations to deal with. In this context, it will be necessary to
establish new connections between life and learning, work and learning,
and working world and life, which enable elderly people to make use of
their individual experience and competencies when coping with real
situations or processing information. (31 p. 255, 56, 66)

The consequence will be a change in paradigms: from a teaching didactic
towards an enabling didactic. (5)

Learning in the Context of a New and More Open Service Society

The more learning has to unfold within the framework of real situations
requiring action and is related to practical tasks of problem solving
the more important it is that people remain active in old age, accept
tasks, deal with social problems, and become committed as citizens.

This raises the question of the so-called "second labor market," such
as, forms of work that are not connected to regular posts of gainful
employment but are more open in character and involve casual services,
such as helping other people in the house and garden, in the streets, on
journeys, in case of illness, disability or isolation, looking after
children, offering support in dealing with authorities, and mainly, in
learning and continuing learning. This also opens new horizons for other
"unemployed" people and for cross-age cooperation. (32, p. 53)

It is in new combinations of work and education, work and communication,
work and experience, work and entertainment, work and neighborhood care,
work and civic commitment, and work and involvement in district
activities that learning opportunities and stimuli are to be found and
further developed with the help of creative imagination. (3)

Learning occurs at any place in a modern learning society. It is only a
question of discovering and exploiting it. The much quoted "Entgrenzung
des Lernens" (opening the traditional borders of

approved learning) may then become a key to overcoming learning
abstinence, especially in the elderly.

Developing A New Civic Commitment

In Germany, there are some interesting approaches towards a new civic
commitment and its connection to lifelong learning. (7, 19, 43, 46, 47,
75, 84, 104) (47, p. 96--294)

In this field of civic self-organization, a large variety of activities
unfold by far exceeding the traditional range of unpaid honorary
occupations:

-   guided tours (with different subject matters),

-   learning shops "Wissensborsen" ("knowledge stock exchange,"
    knowledge pool), "Erzahlcafes" ("story-telling café"),

-   history workshops study tours,

-   accompanying people in need of care on journeys,

-   care for children, sick and old people,

-   standing-in for people on holiday,

-   working as a museum attendant,

-   telephone answering,

-   emergency services,

-   information service on educational facilities,

-   learner counseling,

-   learning partnership agencies,

-   expert support for self-learning,

-   repair service on weekends and holidays,

-   art and theatre groups,

-   various clubs (music, sport, hobbies, and film),

-   internet cafes and internet groups,

-   private tuition for schoolchildren,

-   political forums and citizens' initiatives at local level,

-   women's houses,

-   meeting points for senior citizens,

-   self-help groups,

-   health and ecological groups,

-   local history societies,

-   associations for the preservation of customs and tradition,

-   senior citizens' expert service clubs for the elderly,

-   building and maintenance of playgrounds and learning paths,

-   contact agencies,

-   counseling service for setting up business, and

-   agencies for flat sharing and car-pooling. (54 II, p. 48--204,
    63, p. 20)

With a view to promoting lifelong learning, it is crucially important
that in each of these initiatives and activities, learning stimuli and
opportunities will be developed for specific purposes. Learning is
usually implied if the successful and qualified implementation of the
various projects and services depends on a permanent acquisition of
additional knowledge and skills. Here it is useful to arrange learning
partnerships, which may often be done through exchange cooperatives
whose members share their own specialized know­ how and competence with
others and receive, in return, from them support and advice where
needed.

The knowledge that is needed or acquired during these activities may
then be exchanged, discussed and reflected in discussion groups meeting
regularly and including both elderly and younger people.

Civic commitment of older adults may also bring changes to the "contract
between the generations." It means that older people are not simply a
burden to be carried by the younger generation. Rather, they take an
active part in the solution of current problems and social tasks,
bringing in their know-how and experience. The elderly may also be of
help for younger people, as counselors, tutors, helping them with
setting up business, or granting credits. (9, 43)

Two Examples of Senior Citizens Network Models

Sylvia Kade, one of the leading German researchers into learning of the
elderly, reports in this paragraph on two initiatives by elderly people
in Frankfurt and Gottingen, which she values as interesting examples of
an increasing range of similar activities in German towns.

*"Seniorenbüro" (senior citizen's advice bureau) in Frankfurt (connected
with the Institut fur Sozialarbeit): A job center for pensioners*

The initiative of the Seniorenburo goes back to a seminar held at the
"University of the Third Age" in Frankfurt, investigating possibilities
of action in old age. First, a survey was conducted among the elderly to
explore their wants and attitudes towards social involvement. It was
followed by inquiries about the demand for unpaid work with
non-profit-making organizations. The findings prompted the Institute fir
Sozialarbeit to participate in the nation-wide and state-financed
implementation of "Senior Citizens' Advice Bureaus," a piloting series
with exemplary character.

Some elderly persons, almost all of them unpaid, set up a "job center
for pensioners" which acted as an intermediary between older providers
of knowledge/know-how and competencies and demand for unpaid work within
non-profit-making institutions: schools, homes, museums, libraries sent
inquiries and numerous elderly persons were prepared to:

-   teach German as a second language to children,

-   conduct ecological guided tours through fruit plantations,

-   work as a museum attendant,

-   contribute as workmen to the renovation of nursery schools and homes
    for the aged,

-   visit lonely old persons in nursing homes, and

-   computerize school libraries.

These examples, among many others, show the extensive, yet largely
unexploited potential of elderly people.

The emerging particular needs for further learning and training were met
by new educational programs offered by the Institute.

Another facility provided by the Institute was a communication center
("Erzahlcafe") for elderly people where historical witnesses reported on
their district, on dying professions ("the last fisherman on the river
Main") or ways of living in past times. This met with great interest
especially of younger people and, finally, the elderly presented their
experience also to schools.

This concept was taken up by homes for the aged who arranged regularly
afternoon meetings where the elderly evoked the past in their reports
with varying topics such as "family chronicle," "our younger days," "our
district." The guiding questions underlying these meetings were: "How
did people live in other times and environments? How did they arrange
their lives under different circumstances? By which means did they try
to render their lives meaningful?"

Finally, elderly people and gerontologists met together at regular
intervals in the "old people's forum" to discuss possibilities of making
life easier in old age and to start new initiatives.

*Freje Altenarbeit e. V. Göttingen: social center, flat-sharing for the
elderly, "Zeitzeugenbörse (historical witness exchange)*

The project of Freie Altenarbeit developed from an initiative taken by
old people's nurses, who in 1986 founded an association with 16 members
with the aim of promoting the integration of mobile nursing services and
open assistance for older people, and the further education of trainees
in order to maintain and enhance autonomy in old age.

In 1989, the initiative founded with the support of the local government
a mobile nursing service, connected since 1991 to a day care center, for
improving regular provision for older people according to the aims of
the association.

In cooperation with the University of Göttingen, the project "Living
together, not lonely" was set up by a discussion group composed of
students and elderly people. They were supported by the local government
who gave at their disposal an Art Deco villa for rent free use over 10
years. Further subsidies came from the Land in support of the
flat-sharing project for elderly people and the renovation of the villa.

The "Company of good will," a workmen initiative by elderly people from
the Ruhr area, undertook the renovation of the villa, making it suitable
to the needs of old people. At the same time, the villa became the new
location of the association, and in 1993, 11 elderly women moved in,
each into her own apartment. These women had abandoned the environment
familiar to them to avoid isolation and try out new forms of social life
together with others. In this, they were assisted by the younger members
of the association.

In the year of "solidarity between the generations," the association
started a Euro-pilot project under the title "Dialogue on nursing
relations" with the aim of promoting exchange between people in need of
care, and younger old people's nurses. During the course of this
Europroject, mutual visits for evaluation were organized for the
participating projects in Europe.

At the same time, "planning groups" were set up by the association with
the task of bringing together old and young people, professionals and
laymen, for a continual and structured development of educational
concepts. These activities gave rise to another Europroject in 1996,
promoting dialogue between the generations, between witnesses of past
times and young people, and with the aid of the "story line" method.

This project focuses on "biography groups," "Erzahlcafes," and a
"Zeitzeugenborse." For these activities, an additional training program
for speakers/presenters has been developed.

Next Steps

As there are initiatives like those in Frankfurt and Göttingen, also in
many other towns in Germany, we begin now to collect information about
relevant activities and experiences on a national level, to bring the
engaged people together for exchange and learning from one another, and
to build up broader "senior learning networks."

But as the problems of learning in the "third age" often are
aggravations of general problems of adult learners, the endeavors to
develop more adequate learning opportunities for the elderly are seen as
part of a necessary general strategy to promote "lifelong learning for
all" by furthering:

-   more individualized and self-directed learning,

-   more open learning independent of fixed times and places,

-   more problem solving learning related to real situations and civic
    commitment,

-   more modular structures of learning, software and retrieval systems,
    and

-   the creative development of a "learning society" with a great
    variety of stimulating (formal and informal) learning opportunities.

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