Younger Specialists Teaching Older Learners: When Learning in Later Life Can Be a Source of Conflict

ABSTRACT

In line with “Healthy Ageing”, health education programs for older adults are increasingly promoted as a means to decrease dependency in later life. We explore such a program in Mashhad, Iran. We ask: How do older adults perceive “learning”. In other words, instead of considering all learning as inherently beneficial, we adopt a critical point of view by asking how learning can be perceived as beneficial or not. Firstly, we briefly present the health education program in Mashhad, based on exploratory findings. Secondly, we explore the program’s intergenerational dynamic: younger “doctor-educators” teaching older learners, or “savant knowledge” of a younger generation confronting the “common knowledge” or “experience-based knowledge” of an older generation.

Finally, we present a conceptual framework for the term “learning”. It is a word often used in an all-encompassing manner, as though it could be applied indiscriminately to all types of actions and outcomes. However, the works of authors like Reboul, Bateson and Bloom who distinguish between different categories or levels of learning, could serve as a conceptual framework allowing us to differentiate between the different meanings the word encompasses.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthy ageing, learning, older learners, younger educators

Notes

1. Total population of Iran in 2012: 75.1 million (60 to +80 year olds: 6.98%; 40 to 59 years olds: 20.15%; 20 to 39 years old: 39.42%). Source: Statistical Center of Iran, 2011, www.amar.org.ir

2. This information was gathered during an exploratory phase of research in 2014.

3. A traditional stew made of lamb’s head and hooves.

4. What is learning?