The Meaning of Life and Older Learners: Addressing the Fundamental Issue through Critical Thinking and Teaching.

Although the importance of meaning in life has been recognized in the educational gerontology literature, scholars have given little in the way of an analysis of the concept and even less information about effective ways to plan and conduct educational programs for older learners who are interested in the meaning of life. This article examines the definition of the meaning of life and suggests that the concept is best understood when viewed as “meaning making,” that is, as an individual activity that occurs when persons are faced with an experience that challenges their basic assumptions about the world and that requires them to make meaning of the experience by filtering it through their basic assumptions. Experiences that confront the basic assumptions of older learners are used as illustrations to explain meaning making by older adults. Meaning making is favorably compared with perspective transformation, which establishes a theoretical framework for discussing ways to address the meaning of life in ed...