Abstract:
In this study, 7 men and women with an average age of 77 were interviewed
regarding their experience of attending courses at a Learning in Retirement Institute
(LRI) in southern Ontario. The purpose was to explore the role of wisdom in the learning
of these retirees. Explicit theories of wisdom developed by selected philosophers,
psychologists, and religious thinkers were compared to the implicit theories of wisdom
that respondents expressed. Further comparisons were drawn between these implicit
theories of wisdom and the act of perspective transformation in transformative learning.
Some evidence was found that the development of wisdom compares favourably to
perspective transformation, especially with regards to the behavioural changes associated
with critical self-reflection. Among all the respondents, those 3 LRI stude.its who had
also moderated courses indicated that they had experienced the most opportunities for
critical self-reflection. These 3 also expressed deep satisfaction in having been able to put
their learnings to use as teachers. A recommendation of this study is that opportunities for
sharing and acting upon the results of discourse within Learning in Retirement Institutes
should be implemented. In the absence of evaluation, opportunities for praxis (such as coop
placements) must be developed so that students can measure their success against
objective criteria and hence attach meaning to their studies.
