WORKSHOPS AS A FORM OF ACTIVITY IN THIRD AGE EDUCATION

Abstract

The author’s interest in the problem of third age education inspired her to ask a ąuestion concerning the significance and contents of education in late adulthood. The paper presents the author s experience resulting from workshops organized at the Third Age University. The workshops are treated as a learning stimulus, an opportunity to learn morę about oneself and others as well as deepen ones self-awareness. They help their participants reconstruct the their past, as well as gain a better understanding of both their present and the complexity of their lives.
It is often said that in the second half of peoples life, human development is morę reflective, hence a deeper reflection on life experience and reconstruction of knowledge as well as life experience may constitute a perfect learning opportunity. Workshop techniques meet the needs of adult learners, allow them to take advantage of their ‘life knowledge’ which is built upon personal experience, and whose significance has recently gained morę recognition in adragogy. Workshops remind their participant of the need to reconstruct and restructure their varied experience, which is commonly referred to as the need of the elderly to share their experience. Workshops encourage the development skills, abilities or competence relevant in every day life. They widen the scope of both generał knowledge as well knowledge of other people and oneself.
While organizing various forms of activity for elderly people, it has to be remembered that human existence is multidimensional - biological, social and cultural in character and is rooted in broadly understood life emńronment as well as in ones biography.