Participation of older people in learning studies
A scoping review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.4188Keywords:
older people, learning, participation, scoping reviewAbstract
The participation and meaningful engagement of older people are strongly supported because of their individual and communal benefits. Currently there is a lack of general understanding of how older people participate in research activities. The purpose of this review was to examine the ways older people participate in learning studies. A search of abstracts of empirical studies published in English was conducted in three databases between 2015 and 2019 using scoping review methodology. The results showed that most
often older people did participate as study subjects in clinical studies. Other participant roles included informants, partners, and multiple roles. The review addressed a paucity in qualitative and participatory roles in older people’s learning studies. All participant
roles are still needed to provide various standpoints for learning studies. Further studies are suggested to provide various meaningful and participatory ways for older people to get involved in research activities.
Metrics
References
Anderson, S., Fast, J., Keating, N., Eales, J., Chivers, S., & Barnet, D. (2017). Translating Knowledge: Promoting Health Through Intergenerational Community Arts Programming. Health Promotion Practice, 18(1), 15-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839915625037
Annweiler, C., Doineau, L., Gerigne, L., Provendier, A., Karras, S. P., Beauchet, O., Fantino, B., & Duval, G. T. (2018). Vitamin D and Subjective Memory Complaint in Community-Dwelling Older Adults. Current Alzheimer Research, 15(7), 664-670. https://doi.org/10.2174/1567205015666180201153735
Araiba, S. (2020). Current Diversification of Behaviorism. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 43(1), 157-175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-019-00207-0
Arksey, H., & O’Malley, L. (2005). Scoping Studies: Towards a Methodological Framework. Int. J. Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616
Aroogh, M.D., & Shahboulaghi, F. M. (2020). Social participation of older adults: A Concept Analysis. International Journal of Community Based Nursing and Midwifery, 1, 55-72. https://doi.org/10.30476%2FIJCBNM.2019.82222.1055
Bagnall, R. G. (1989). Researching Participation in Adult Education: A Case of Quantified Distortion. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 8(3), 251-260. https://doi.org/10.1080/0260137890080306
Bauer, M. W. (2000). Classical Content Analysis: A Review. In Bauer, M. W. & Gaskell, G. (eds). Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound. London: SAGE Publications.
Beebeejaum, Y., Durose, C., Rees, J., Richardson, J., & Richardson, L. (2015). Towards coproduction in research with communities. Public Harm or public value? Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 33, 552-565. https://doi.org/10.1068/c12116
Bjursell, C., Nystedt, P., Björklund, A., & Sternäng, O. (2017). Education level explains participation in work and education later in life. Educational Gerontology, 43(10), 511-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2017.1357397
Black, K., Dobbs, D., & Young, T. L. (2012). Aging in Community: Mobilizing a New Paradigm of Older Adults as a Core Social Resource. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 34(2), 219-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464812463984
Blair, T., & Minkler, M. (2009). Participatory Action Research With Older Adults: Key Principles in Practice. The Gerontologist, 49(5), 651-662. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnp049
Boletsis, C., & McCallum, S. (2016). Smartkuber: A Serious Game for Cognitive Health Screening of Elderly Players. Games for Health Journal, 5(4), 241-251. https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2015.0107
Bracht, G. H. & Glass, G. V. (2011). The External Validity of Experiments1. In W. P. Vogt (Eds.), SAGE Quantitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Breeden, L. E. (2016). Occupational Therapy Home Safety Intervention via Telehealth. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 8(1), 29-40. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2016.6183
Buffel, T. (2018). Social research and co-production with older people: Developing age-friendly communities. Journal of Aging Studies, 2018, 52-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2018.01.012
Byrne, D. (2016). Research ethics. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Cavuoto, M. G., Ong, B., Pike, K. E., Nicholas, C. L., Bei, B., & Kinsella, G. J. (2016). Objective but not subjective sleep predicts memory in community-dwelling older adults. Journal of Sleep Research, 25(4), 475-485. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12391
Chang, F-H., Coster, W. J., & Helfrich, C. A. (2013). Community Participation Measures for People with Disabilities: A Systematic Review of Content from an International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Perspective. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 94, 771-781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2012.10.031
Chae, S. E., & Kang, G. (2018). Determinants of older Korean adults’ participation in life-long learning programmes and life satisfaction. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 37(6), 689-700. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2018.1528306
Chen, K., Chun Ting Cheung, J., Juan Wang, J., & Wei Qun Lou, V. (2020). Older people as peer researchers in ageing research. Nuisance or necessity? In M. Luszczy?ska (Ed.) Researching ageing. Methodological challenges and their empirical background. (pp. 265-273.) New York: Routledge.
Dawson-Townsend, K. (2019). Social participation patterns and their associations with health and well-being for older adults. SSM – Population Health, 8, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100424
Fudge, N., Wolfe, C. D. A., & McKevitt, C. (2007). Involving Older People in Health Research. Age and Ageing, 36, 492–500. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afm029
Grummell, B. & Finnegan, F. (2020). Introduction. Doing Critical and Creative Research in Adult Education. In B. Grummell & F. Finnegan (Eds.), Doing Critical and Creative Research in Adult Education. Case Studies in Methodology and Theory. Leiden, Boston: Brill Sense, 1-12.
Halfpenny, P., & Procter, R. (Eds.). (2015). Innovations in digital research methods. London: Sage.
Hammersley, M. (2013). What is Qualitative Research? London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Helterbran, V. R. (2016). Lessons in Lifelong Learning: Earning a Bachelor's Degree in Retirement. Adult Learning, 28(1), 12-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1045159516643942
Heigl, F., Kieslinger, B., Paul, K. T., Uhlik, J. & Dödler, D. (2019). Toward an international definition of citizen science. PNAS, 116(17), 8089-8092. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903393116
Hori, S., Choi, I., & Park, J. (2018). A comparative study of older adult learning in Korea and Japan: Focusing on learning after 70 years old. Educational Gerontology, 44(5-6), 354-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2018.1479138
Israel, B. A., Schulz, A. J., Parker, E. A., Becker, A. B., Allen, A. J., & Guzman, J. R. (2008). Critical issues in developing and following community based participatory research principles. In Minkler, M., & Wallerstein, N. (Eds.). Community based participatory research for health. San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass, 46-66.
Jennings, G. (2015). Qualitative Research for the University Sector: Paradigms that inform Research. Imagine Consulting Group International Pty Ltd. https://mitsdu.dk/-/media/mitsdu/filer/mit_studie/kandidat/european_master_tourist_management/jennings-2015-qualitative-research-for-the-university-sector.pdf
Johnsson, B. R. (2012). Dialectical Pluralism and Mixed Research. American Behavioral Scientist, 56(6), 751-754. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212442494
Jordan, R. C., Ballard, H. L. & Phillips, T. B. (2012). Key issues and new approaches for evaluating citizen-science learning outcomes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 10, 307-309. https://doi.org/10.1890/110280
Kern, D. (2014). Conceptual Basis for Learning. Frameworks for Older Adult Learning. In B. Schmidt-Hertha et al. (Eds.), Learning across Generations in Europe, 73-84. Sense Publishers.
Kouvonen, A., Swift, J. A., Stafford, M., Cox, T., Vahtera, J., Väänänen, A. Heponiemi, T. De Vogli, R., Griffiths, A., & Kivimäki, M. (2012). Social Participation and Maintaining Recommended Waist Circumference: Prospective Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging. Journal of Ageing and Health, 24(2), 250–268. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264311421960
Kowe, A., Köhler, S., Klein, O. A., Lüthje, C., Kalzendorf, J., Weschke, S. & Teipel, S. (2020). Stakeholder involvement in dementia research: A qualitative approach with healthy senior citizens and providers of dementia care in Germany. Health and Social Care, 2020, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13238
Krätzig, G. P., & Arbuthnott, K. D. (2009). Metacognitive learning: the effect of item-specific experience and age on metamemory calibration and planning. Metacognition Learning, 4, 125-144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-009-9039-3
Laes, T. (2015). Empowering Later Adulthood Music Education: A Case Study of a Rock Band for Third-Age Learners. International Journal of Music Education, 33(1), 51-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761413515815
Levac, D., Colquhoun, H., & O'Brien, K. (2010). Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Implementation Science, 5, 69. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-5-69
Levasseur, M., Richard, L., Gauvin, L., & Raymond, É. (2010). Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: Proposed taxonomy of social activities. Social Science & Medicine, 71, 2141-2149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.09.041
Llorente, C., Revuelta, G., & Carrió, M. (2021). Social participation in science: Perspectives of Spanish civil society organizations. Public Understanding of Science, 30(1), 36-54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662520960663
Luszczynska, M. (2020). Recapitulation. Ageing research on highways and byways of methodology. In ?uszczy?ska, M. (Ed.) Researching Ageing. Methodological Challenges and their Empirical Background. New York: Routledge.
Marshall, M. N. (1996). The key informant technique. Family practice, 13(1), 92-97. https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/13.1.92
Mason, J. (1996). Qualitative researching. London: SAGE.
Martinson, M. & Minkler, M. (2006). Civic engagement and older adults: A critical perspective. The Gerontologist, 46(3), 318-324. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/46.3.318
Merriam, S. B. (2001). Andragogy and Self-Directed Learning: Pillars of Adult Learning Theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 89, 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.3
Merriam, S. B., & Kee, Y. (2014). Promoting Community Wellbeing: The Case for Lifelong Learning for Older Adults. Adult Education Quarterly, 64(2), 128-144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713613513633
Michelet, M., Lund, A., & Sveen, U. (2014). Strategies to recruit and retain older adults in intervention studies: A quantitative comparative study. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 59, 25-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2014.03.002
Minkler, M., Tau Lee, P., Tom, A., Chang, C., Morales, A., San Liu, S., Salvatore, A., Baker, R., Chen, F., Bhatia, R. & Krause, N. (2010). Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Design and Initiate a Study on Immigrant Worker Health and Safety in San Francisco’s Chinatown Restaurants. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 53, 361-371. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20791
Murman, D. L. (2015). The Impact of Age on Cognition. Seminars in hearing, 36(3), 111-121. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0035-1555115
National Institute for Health Research [NIHR]. (2019). National Standards for Public Involvement. NIHR.
Narushima, M., Liu, J., & Diestelkamp, N. (2018). I Learn, Therefore I am: A Phenomenological Analysis of Meanings of Lifelong Learning for Vulnerable Older Adults. The Gerontologist, 58(4), 696-705. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnx044
Niedzwiedz, C., Richardson, E., Tunstall, H., Shortt, N., Mitchell, R. J., & Pearce, J. (2016). The relationship between wealth and loneliness among older people across Europe: Is social participation protective? Preventive Medicine, 91, 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.07.016
Petroka, K., Campbell-Bussiere, R., Dychtwald, D. K., & Milliron, B- J. (2017). Barriers and Facilitators to Healthy Eating and Disease Self-Management Among Older Adults Residing in Subsidized Housing. Nutrition & Health, 23(3), 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106017722724
Quinton, S. & Reynolds, N. (2018). The Changing Roles of Researchers and Participants in Digital and Social Media Research: Ethics Challenges and Forward Directions. In K. Woodfield (Ed.), The Ethics of Online Research (pp. 53-78). United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing.
Rahman-Filipiak, A., Woodard, J. L., Miller, S. L., Martin, P., Davey, A., & Poon, L. W. (2015). Octogenarian and centenarian performance on the Fuld Object Memory Evaluation. Neuropsychology, Development, and Cognition, 22(4), 438-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2014.968085
Ranzijn, R. (2010). Active Ageing - Another Way to Oppress Marginalized and Disadvantaged Elders? Aboriginal Elders as a Case Study. Journal of Health Psychology, 15(5), 716-723. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105310368181
Rawinski, M. M. (2017). Ageing and Learning Experiences: The Perspective of a Polish Senior Immigrant in Sweden. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 57(3), 421-439.
Sandelowski, M. (2000). Focus on Research Methods. Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Sampling, Data collection, and Analysis Techniques in Mixed-Methods Studies. Research in Nursing & Health, 23, 246-255. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-240X(200006)23:3%3C246::AID-NUR9%3E3.0.CO;2-H
Santos-Monteiro, T., Beets, I. A. M., Boisgontier, M. P., Gooijers, J., Pauwels, L. Chalavi, S., King, B., Albouy, G., & Swinnen, S. P. (2017). Relative cortico-subcortical shift in brain activity but preserved training-induced neural modulation in older adults during bimanual motor learning. Neurobiology of Aging, 58, 54-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2017.06.004
Scharf, T. Phillipson, C., Kingston, P., & Smith, A. E. (2001). Social exclusion and older people: exploring the connections. Education and Ageing, 16(3), 303–320.
Seifert, A., Doh, M., & Wahl, H. W. (2017). They also do it: Internet use by older adults living in residential care facilities. Educational Gerontology, 43(9), 451-461. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2017.1326224
Sibai, A. M. & Hachem, H. (2021). Embracing a culture of lifelong learning: older adult learning and active ageing: bridging self-actualization and emancipation. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377822?posInSet=6&queryId=04029ba5-690c-45ae-9e6d-c52696db00cf
Strom, R. D., & Strom, P. S. (2017). Grandparent Education for Assisted Living Facilities. Educational Gerontology, 43(1), 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2016.1231518
Treblay, M. A. (1982). The key informant technique: a non-ethnographic application. In Burgess, R.G. (Ed.), Field research: a sourcebook and field manual. London: Allen & Unwin, 98-104.
Taylor, A. & Raykov, M. (2020). Towards Critical and Dialogical Mixed Methods Research. In B. Grummell & F. Finnegan (Eds.), Doing Critical and Creative Research in Adult Education. Case studies in methodology and theory. Leiden, Boston: Brill Sense, 127-137.
The Council of the European Union. (2011). Council resolution on a renewed European agenda for adult learning. Official Journal of the European Union, 2011/C, 372/01. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32011G1220(01)&from=EN
Tuckett, A. G., Rowbotham, S., Hetherington, S., Goddard, J., & King, A. C. (2022). Using citizen science to empower older adults to improve food security initiative in Australia. Health Promotion International, 37(1), daab060. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daab060
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015). World Population Ageing 2015.
Van Den Steen, L., Schellen, C., Verstraelen, K., Beeckman, A-S., Vanderwegen, J., De Bodt, M., & Van Nuffelen, G. (2018). Tongue-Strengthening Exercises in Healthy Older Adults: Specificity of Bulb Position and Detraining Effects. Dysphagia, 33(3), 337-344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-017-9858-3
Weil, J., Mendoza, A. N., & McGavin, E. (2017). Recruiting older adults as participants in applied social research: Applying and evaluating approaches from clinical studies. Educational Gerontology, 43(12), 662-673. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2017.1386406
Wittmayer, J. M. & Schäpke, N. (2014). Action, Research and Participation: Roles of Researchers in Sustainability Transitions. Sustainability Science, 9(4), 483–496. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0258-4
World Health Organization [WHO]. (2020). Decade of healthy ageing: baseline report. Geneva: World Health Organization. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Wozniak, Z. (2020). Terra incognita. In ?uszczy?ska, M. (Ed). Researching Ageing. Methodological Challenges and their Empirical Background. New York: Routledge.
Åberg, P. (2016). Nonformal Learning and Well-Being among Older Adults: Links between Participation in Swedish Study Circles, Feelings of Well-Being and Social Aspects of Learning. Educational Gerontology, 42(6), 411-422. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2016.1139972
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Jenni Koski, Kaisa Pihlainen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
As RELA is an open access journal, this means that anyone who can access the Internet can freely download and read the journal. There are no commercial interests for Linköping University Electronic Press or the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) in publishing the journal. There are no charges for publishing authors.
The core idea of open access is that copyright remains with the author(s). However, we publish with the agreement of the author that if she or he decides later to publish the article elsewhere, that the publisher will be notified, prior to any acceptance, that the article has already been published by RELA.
When publishing with RELA, it is with the agreement of the author that if they make their article available elsewhere on the internet (for example, on their own website or an institutional website), that they will do so by making a link to the article as published in RELA using the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number of the article and acknowledge in the text of the site that the article has been previously published in RELA.
