Conference
2006
IAUTA
conference Rheims, France September 2006
Feedback from workshops
New
methods for teaching older people.
Reporter:
Nelly Del Forno
In this workshop there were many interesting observations, including descriptions of different methods used in various courses. The need to know how to teach older people was articulated; older people who are at the heart of the educational process and who should be treated as the equals of those who teach them.
"We all know
that teaching adults is quite different from teaching children."
The record of activity
across five continents.
Reporter:
Professor Jacques Desautels
Several people felt it would have useful when discussing the different U3A models to know if public financing of a U3A gave help to a particular model of U3A. To go even further, it would have been useful to discuss the following question, which is of fundamental importance, given the the variety of U3A as they have adapted the Vellas model to their particular circumstances: is this model now out of date?
A little later Professor
Jacques Lefevre, a former IAUTA President, was heard to observe "We
need a cultural revolution; we can't go on using the Vellas model".
Collective memory
and the transmission of culture
Reporters:
Paulin Duchesne / Irma Re
Workshop members raised the issue of the competition to direct communication represented by the internet, which has both great benefits and drawbacks, but which lacks above all that critical faculty, that ability to compare which is or should be the mark of the older person (who is simultaneously aware of the present, past and future).
Other media often have the drawback of information which is short-lived, ill organised and lacking definition.
The last word was
from a congress member who sensibly made the distinction between the transmission
of values and the spread of knowledge. It was in this connection that
older people have a special role to play. And so much the better if in
so doing they have wisdom on their side.
What kind of future
for U3As?
Reporter:
Maria-Caterina Federici
Three key points emerged from this workshop:
1. An exchange
of information
In opening the Congress, Jean-Louis Levesque, retiring President, had
pointed out that 5 different models of U3A can be identified.
- the Vellas model
- the Anglo-Saxon model
- the Francophone North American model
- the Latin American model
- the Chinese model
2. Finance
Every U3A to a greater or lesser extent experiences financial difficulty.
How can this be remedied?
3. Development
strategies
Institutions, firms and associations frequently go through cycles of development,
stagnation and a downward curve if no action is taken. At the first sign
we must have the strength to examine our way of working so as to remedy
the situation and to redirect our institution.
New methods of
teaching older people
Reporter:
Hélene REBOUL de l'Université Lyon 2
Getting to grips with new methods of teaching older people necessitates starting from actual experiences within U3As and in this instance arising from participants' activities. In this workshop there were representatives from two very different structures; the one from Sedan (France, Champagne-Ardennes) and the other from Barcelona (Spain).
This page 15th February 2008