Learning Activities, Aging and Expertise, and Metacognitive Knowledge of Older Adults in Hong Kong Access to Distance Education by Asian Women

The changing demography of the world population and the increase in life expectancy in all parts of the globe imply that in due course a sizeable majority of the population of many countries will be older adults aged 55 and above. Hong Kong will not be an exception. As has already occurred in other parts of the world resulting in the development of the University of the Third Age (U3A), this change will force a rethink of adult learning and what lifelong education means to older adults in Hong Kong. This will also force distance and open education providers to reconceptualise their courses and examine newer and more relevant areas for life-long courses for the aged. To effectively do this, there is a need to determine a number of things, which will significantly affect the provision of educational services to this group of citizenry. Amongst others, the learning activities in which older adults in Hong Kong will prefer to engage in will be investigated. Current studies on intelligence, information processing and memory indicate that some of these factors relate to aging and hence learning by older adults. It will be worthwhile investigating these factors with regard to the Hong Kong older adult population. Several metacognitive factors and, personal and demographic variables, which affect learning as older adults, will also be studied. The success of this project has the potential to enhance the efficacy of the teaching and learning process among older adults and increase the effective use of distance and open learning as a vehicle for providing self-directed learning packages to the older adults of Hong Kong.