臺灣鄉村老人教育之探討

A Study on Education of the Elderly in Rural Taiwan

林月熠(Yueh-Yi Lin) ； 蘇雅惠(Yei-Fei Su)

《農業推廣學報》 15期 (1998/12) Pp. 199-239

https://doi.org/10.29788/RAES.199812.0009

摘要

近年來，臺灣地區老年人口比例不斷成長，這將使得社會負擔加劇，社會問題百出。老人教育的實施可以從根本來幫助老人社會問題的減少，但是有關此方面的研究卻很少。對臺灣鄉村地區而言，老化的現象較都市更為嚴重，但卻往往被忽略，而有注意到的研究對象，期望能對其目前的老人教育情況有一概括性的了解，並擇一辦理情況較佳的鄉鎮為個案，進行較深入的全貌性研究，期望能給其他鄉鎮、老人教育機構、研究者等做一個參考。本文有兩個主要的研究目的：瞭解目前臺灣鄉村地區老人教育推行之現況，及擇一鄉鎮做該地區老人教育的描繪，並針對此二目的分兩階段進行。在第一階段中發現：老人教育在鄉村地區並不普遍，推行的機構很有限，但老人參與主動且踴躍，而因活動多半不向老人收費，所以老人教育機構很容易產生經費、場地、人力、師資等方面的問題。在第二階段中發現老人教育機構計畫者、執行者與授課者多半還是以福利的眼光來看待老人教育，屬於心靈成長方面的課程較少，但他們都很肯定老人有學習的能力，認為老人教育有推廣的可行性；而參與老人教育活動者，通常具有年齡較低、女性較多、居住地較近老人教育機構、心理較健康開朗及社經地位較高等特質，其教育需求則以表現及應付兩者為最要，其它很少考慮到；他們對於老人教育活動都相當有興趣，覺得收獲很多，對於內容安排、師資等也大都滿意，所以他們均表示，只要環境許可，都將不會中斷學習。

關鍵字

老人教育 ； 鄉村地區

並列摘要

Taiwan has recently been confronted with many new issues regarding the elderly and their welfare because of an ever-increasing elderly population. Although Taiwanese society has begun to deal with these problems, what little progress has come has occurred in urban areas. Such efforts also neglect the fact that the population of elderly has grown much more rapidly in rural areas. Indeed, even though attempts to provide the elderly with education could significantly help them in solving their problems, past researchers have generally failed to examine such efforts, particularly in application to rural areas. This research thus intends to explore the educational program currently implemented in rural areas for the elderly. The purposes are twofold: (1) to portray the general trends of such programs; and (2) to examine the educational programs and activities for the elderly in a specific rural town-a case study.The rural educational programs in place for the elderly displayed several common aspects:(1) Programs created specifically for the elderly in rural areas were rare. (2) The elderly actively engaged in available educational activities.(3) Most organizations providing educational programs faced economic and resource problems such as lack of finance. human resources, teachers, and locations to hold activities.The case study revealed several important characteristics of the various educational programs:(1) Educational planners, practitioners, and educators placed emphasis on learning skills and practices rather than on liberal courses. All of them are convinced that the elderly have vast potential to acquire new knowledge, and they believe that the extension of educational programs in rural areas is feasible.(2) The elderly who participated in the programs generally were of lower age, female, mentally healthy, of higher socioeconomic status, and resided near the educational organizations.(3) Those who participated appreciated the educational programs and were satisfied by the quality of teaching.(4) All of the elderly demonstrated strong eagerness for continued learning.

並列關鍵字

education ； elderly ； rural