This qualitative study explores how older adults, who are retired or contemplating retirement, make choices regarding their non-formal educational experiences. This national study collected data from 154 Elderhostel participants, aged 42 to 85 and, consistent with Moustaka's five phases of phenomenological analysis, triangulated the data from 17 focus groups, 10 in-depth interviews, and a demographic questionnaire. / The choice of Elderhostel as an educational venue for learning, and the specific course selection, were found to be influenced by 14 factors: location, travel, program, course content, accommodations, cost, dates, negotiation with travel partner, social, sites, personal requirements, escape, information, and the policies, philosophy and program requirements of Elderhostel. A participant typology emerged during the data collection and analysis and revealed six types of Elderhostelers: the activity oriented, geographical guru, experimenter, adventurer, content-committed, and the user. / The study of decision-making processes in education is in its infancy. This study paves the way for the doctoral study to expand on this foundation of knowledge by quantitatively investigating the 14 factors which were identified, defined, and examined in this study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26717 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Arsenault, Nancy. |
| Contributors | Anderson, Gary (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001556049, proquestno: MQ29524, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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