One of the principal challenges for the leisure profession in the next few decades will be the provision and management of learning programs for the elderly. The past two decades have witnessed an enormous growth in the demand for leisure education and as the population ages the need will become much greater. Since the 1970s education researchers have shown, however, that adult learning differs considerably from children's learning. In general adults are self-motivated, self-directed learners and ordinary pedagogical approaches do not fare well with such individuals. The term andragogy is used to describe "the process of helping adults learn or facilitating self-directed activities" and leisure professionals need a comprehensive understanding of andragogical principles as they apply to leisure education (O'Dell, 1997, p. 46). A review of the characteristics of andragogy demonstrates the vital importance of this educational approach in the context of learning programs for the elderly.
After World War II when many people's traditional schooling was disrupted educational opportunities became more flexible. Subsequent prosperity led to greater leisure and "more responsive forms of adult education emerged" to meet a growing demand for lifelong learning (Arsenault & Anderson, 1998, p. 27). It was also in the postwar years, from 1946 to 1964, that the great population explosion known as the baby boom took place. Individuals born in those years will reach ages 50 to 70 in the first decades of the new century. A total of 76 million Americans, one-third of the population, will be elderly or approaching their senior years and as a result "an adult and older adult oriented society is materializing" (O'Dell, 1997, p. 45). As this population ages the trend is also toward a greater proportion of elderly persons who are "healthy, affluent, well-educated, and geographically mobile"--all characteristics of the lifelong-learner clientele t...