The United Nations (UN) declared 2021-2030 as the "Decade of Healthy Ageing." The World Health Organization (WHO) and other global programs developed initiatives in support of UN's goals, which include focus on lifelong learning. WHO refers to the "transformative pathway" in its 2021 "Decade of Healthy Ageing Baseline…

Scholarly journals shape adult education research, disseminate knowledge, and serve readers worldwide. Journals' success depends on peer reviewers, yet editors face challenges securing reviewers. We discuss the galvanizing role of journals and issues contributing to reviewer reluctance. We explore strategies to encourage participation in the adult…

I presented the 2019 Hans O. Mauksch address at the American Sociological Association annual meeting in New York City on August 13, 2019. In this address, I explore how sociology faculty perceive their physical bodies in relationship to teaching. After reviewing the literature, I surveyed a national sample of sociology faculty from diverse…

As the world's population is more interconnected by the Internet and mobile devices, older adults are expected to use Internet-based services, such as education, health, finance, and even communication. Despite the recent research that an increasing number of older adults are embracing digital lives, they face unique challenges due to age-related…

In this keynote presentation given at the 2016 Association for Interdisciplinary Studies conference, I considered the field of gerontology from a transdisciplinary perspective. Juxtaposing personal narratives with dominant and alternative discourses on issues of aging, later life, and old age, I explored such questions as: Given the multifaceted,…

The purpose of this paper was to share an intergenerational approach for learning as undergraduate students became researchers. Student-researchers selected one topic as a team that was anchored in gerontological theory and then interviewed and taught elder participants using a qualitative approach. The richness of this qualitative research…

Efficient memory is one of the necessary cognitive potentials required for virtually every form of lifelong learning. In this contribution we first briefly review and summarize state of the art of knowledge on memory and related cognitive functions in normal aging. Then we critically discuss a relatively short inventory of clinical, psychometric,…

Technological devices help extending a person's sensory experience of the environment. From sensors to cameras, devices currently use embedded systems that can be used for the main goal they were designed but they can also be used for other objectives without additional costs of material or service subscription. Emotional assessment is a useful…

We are in an innovation process for the development of a new generation of tools and resources for education and training throughout life, available in any platform, at anytime and place and in any language. The project TOPQX intends to congregate a set of theoretical and empirical resources that form a scientific base from which it will be…

This paper was presented at the International Symposium on Lifelong Learning for Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development: Developing a Research Agenda for the Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong, 12-13 January 2011. Tom Karmel suggests that there are four implications of an ageing population: the need to improve labour force participation and…

The United States is at a critical crossroads in its history right now. The public policy problems that the people are facing are complex and interrelated, and the demographic changes that are about to significantly change their country are not well understood by large numbers of people. In this presidential address to the Association for Public…

While the pension plan landscape has changed remarkably over the last two decades, with most private-sector workers seeing a shift from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans, DB pension plans remain the overwhelming norm for K-12 teachers employed by state and local governments. With DB plans, teachers typically receive minimal…

An analysis of the 102 entries, dated from 1975 to 1986, in the section on Religion of "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?: An Annotated GSA Bibliography of Aging and the Humanities" reveals three principal characteristics. First, with the exception of some literature on spiritual well-being, the material cannot be…

Personal response systems (PRS) bring immediate help to aged and disabled persons at home at the touch of a button. The PRS user wears a tiny radio transmitter as a pendant or a bracelet and can send a telephone signal from any part of the home to a 24-hour emergency center when help is needed. This study examined research on the Lifeline system,…

The Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ) has been used in different studies to assess the level of knowledge about old age. It contains 25 factual statements concerning basic physical, mental, and social facts and the most common misconceptions about aging. One purpose of this study was to identify the most frequent misconceptions in a group of older adults…