LAUSR

Abstract Different from other forms of education, Older Adult Education is characterized by the flexibility of education contents and forms, multiplicity of education objectives and the distinctiveness of older adult learners. Such characteristics make developing a high-quality curriculum challenging. In contrast to the conventional view that curriculum development is educators’ duty, this work presents a novel learner-engaged model for curriculum co-development based on a comprehensive survey on three representative curricula in Chinese universities for older adults. The survey reveals that older learners intensively collaborate with educators throughout the lifecycle of curricula. The co-development model features that older learners, as education receivers, are also curriculum co-developers. The developed curricula successfully accommodate older learners’ needs and keep up-to-date in accordance with their background.