The Council for Third Age elevates training standard in senior learning.

 

To address current gap in the senior learning landscape, the Council for Third Age (C3A) has launched the first Geragogy Guidelines to enhance overall training and delivery standards for senior learning in Singapore.

With a rapidly ageing population and increasing proportion of older adults participating in lifelong learning, there is growing emphasis to address the learning needs and challenges unique to senior learners in order to support lifelong learning, a key component to successful ageing. Taking into consideration the unique characteristics and needs of senior learners, specific training method and delivery approach can influence the learning experience.

Developed in collaboration with the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), the guidelines aim to foster a more enriching and positive learning experience for seniors. This is the first set of learning guidelines for seniors in Singapore and they provide recommendations on effective adoption of teaching methodologies to enhance the learning experience for senior learners.

The guidelines cover three key areas:

• Understanding the unique characteristics of senior learners which include different physical abilities, personal attitudes and learning. These include emotional challenges such as fear of speaking up in class to structural challenges including not being able to keep pace with the class.
• Adoption of appropriate teaching method to create an effective learning experience including affirming the senior learner’s input or achievements during class, and
• Effective trainer traits.

“Senior learners have distinct learning needs compared to other segments of the population. As such, trainers need to be cognisant of these needs that call for specialised learning guidelines tailored for seniors which is currently absent in the senior learning landscape. With these guidelines, they serve as a reference for trainers to achieve better learning outcomes and elevate teaching standard.” said Kwok Wui San, chairman of C3A.

“With the Geragogy Guidelines, it will help to provide a structured framework to enhance our tailored training to meet learning needs of senior learners in their lifelong learning journey,” said Joanne Loy, a trainer at the Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA).

To promote widespread adoption of the Geragogy Guidelines, C3A is currently working with Enterprise Singapore to establish these guidelines as a national standard for senior learning in the near future.