A case study of learning styles of older adults attending an English course

Abstract

The education of older adults is of special interest to instructors and researchers involved in lifelong education. There is not an overabundance of research in the area of the learning styles of this age group, and the exploration of it might produce significant insights about materials and methodologies that may meet their learning needs successfully. This study analyses the learning styles preferred by a group of older adults in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. Sixty-six participants (with an average age of 71.05) taking English as a foreign language course responded to the 44-item questionnaire on learning styles by Felder & Soloman (1997). The information of the respondents using statistical and correlation analyses permitted to define the prevailing learning styles and its relation with the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. The results indicate that older adults express preference for the sensing, active, visual, and sequential styles, being people who tend to work better with facts rather than theories. They also like teamwork, prefer images to sounds, and are methodical in their learning process. In addition, the results reveal the positive correlation of the variables age, level of English, and level of education and occupation before retirement. The two last-mentioned were found to be determinant in the preferences of the participants