Negative Effects Of Old Age

As much as our youth-based culture denies it, old age will eventually affect all of us. With the rapid increase in the global society’s older adult population, that is, those 60 years-of-age or older as defined by the United Nations Population Fund (2012), meeting their needs has taken on new meaning and a sense of urgency. Data from the United States (U.S.) Census Bureau (2008) represented a 15.1% growth rate in the >65 years-of-age population between 2000 and 2010. Many of these older adults, defined in educational terms as third age learners, represent the young-old of 60-80 years-of-age (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2010). According to the ACE (2008 ), many older learners (55-80 years-of-age) are entering college for the first time or returning

As a result there is a blurring of old-age life stages, with little social understanding of this age except what society gleans from cultural mythmakers, filmmakers, novelists, dramatists, and artists (Neugarten, 1986; Barnes, 2002). It has been described as a period of developmental ambiguity, time of life that is both old age and not old age. Research on the older adult tends to focus on ageing as a problem. As structured discrimination, ageism is perpetuated through institutions an social constructs such as health care, work, education, retirement, media, language, and government policies. The diversity of old age has not been recognized and often the aged are portrayed as unproductive, inflexible, senile, and lacking power or influence (Bytheway, 2005; Nelson, 2005; Cuddy, Norton, and Fiske, 2005; Achenbaum, 2008; Filinson, 2008; Blaine,

There appears to be a disconnect between the self-perceptions of the older adults learning capabilities and what faculty perceive their capabilities for learning are. Barriers for learners often ranged from inadequate time to complete assignments, inflexibility of class times, assignment expectations, and negative attitudes of faculty and traditional-aged students (Mosher-Ashley and Ball, 1999; Boulton-Lewis, 2010). There is also a fear associated upon returning which is impacted by how they are received in the classroom by faculty and other students (Boulton-Lewis, 2010). Third-age learners also identified good instructors as one of the most important motivators for the older adult learner (Duay & Bryan (2008). Due to this gap in understanding how faculty perceive the third-age learner and how they might perpetuate ageism in the classroom, it is important and timely to explore this unique phenomenon. For example, faculty may view the third-age learner as in intrusion on their time due to presumed concessions for speed in completing tasks, being inflexible, opinionated, not being able to relate to current trends in education and technology, as well as bringing with them baggage from previous educational or life