“Belt and Road” is the short name for “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”. It is a proposal, based on the “joint consultation, joint building, and joint sharing”, for promoting the development of globalization. So far, China has already signed 187 “Belt and Road” cooperation agreements with 131 countries and 30 international organizations. The total import and export volume between China and the countries along the “Belt and Road” route has reached 6 trillion US dollars. We have created 244 thousand local jobs. “Belt and Road” initiative has promoted the development of both China and its partner countries.
“Belt and Road” initiative can not be separated from education. Education is the foundation of the “strength of the country”, “prosperity of the nation”, and “happiness of the people”. Education plays a basic and leading role in the joint promotion of “Belt and Road” initiative. With the advent of the global ageing era, elderly education (as an important part of lifelong education) has attracted more and more attention. Elderly education not only involves the happiness of the elderly in their twilight years, but also affects the social development as well. Therefore, the elderly education should keep abreast of the pulse of the times, take the fast train of “Belt and Road” initiative, and make simultaneous progress with the society.
The elderly education can not be separated from the teaching aspects in this education. Teaching is the fundamental way to realize the purpose of the elderly education. Teaching issues in elderly education mainly cover four major aspects: “teaching theory”, “teaching contents”, “teaching pattern”, and “teaching assessment”.
In China, the “teaching theory” of elderly education tends to focus on the rational differential education. The institutional rules of each elderly university are different and vary greatly, but the nature of their education is the same. They are all “leisure and cultural education”. “Leisure” represents interest and entertainment. “Culture” represents advancement and pluralism. “Education” represents inspiration and standardization. The nature of elderly education in China determines the essential purpose of education of elderly university in China. We hope, through the implementation of the satisfactory education for the elderly, to enhance the sense of acquisition and happiness of the elderly, to improve the quality of life and the quality of remaining years of the elderly, to cultivate the demeanor of the elderly, to promote the active ageing of the elderly, and to help the elderly to become the leaders of family harmony, the builders of social civilization and the promoters of excellent traditional culture. All these are in line with the mission of the elderly university: “to improve the social status and welfare of the elderly”, which is fixed in the Charter of the University for the Elderly. At the same time, this also conforms to the ideas of “positive ageing” which is widely recognized all around the world.
In China, the “teaching contents” of elderly education constitute a diversified curriculum system which can help meet the varied and multi-level learning needs of elderly students with different education backgrounds, different work experiences, different personal lives, and different health conditions. We must establish a suitable curriculum system. In the process of building and developing the curriculum system, China has always attached great importance to the following several aspects: (1) Entertainment curriculum and knowledge curriculum should be treated equally so as to enhance the reputation of elderly education. (2) In order to build up a sound foundation of elderly education, there should be both traditional and modern courses. (3) While offering Chinese cultural courses, we also pay attention to the study of Western culture. This can help understand better the inclusion of elderly education. (4) We favor a reasonable academic ladder, offering not only courses of several years, but also courses of a few minutes (micro-courses). In this way, elderly students with similar learning levels can be taught together, and different needs of different students can be met more efficiently. This has gradually become the norms of our elderly education. Just as one of the elderly students put it: “No matter what industry and occupation we elderly students used to engage in, we can always find our favorite courses in elderly universities”.
In China, the “teaching pattern” in elderly education consists of many diversified forms. Classroom teaching is the most fundamental way of teaching in elderly education. This mode is often used, for example, in calligraphy, painting, foreign languages, and other courses. At the same time, due to the improvement of people’s material living standards and the innovation of network technology, the teaching pattern of distance education for the elderly has also been developed. For example, Quanzhou University for the Elderly (in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province) has set up a “Quanzhou Distance Elderly Education Platform” to carry out distance education. They sent the resources of elderly education to the remote mountainous areas, which greatly improved the popularization of the elderly education. In addition to that example, our teaching places have also been extended to all kinds of social institutions. We use some unique social resources (which can meet the learning needs of elderly students) to carry out “community study” and “travel study” activities. For instance, to make use of various museums, art galleries, cultural centers, and so on. These places of study have added the vitality to the teaching in elderly education. They are a powerful supplement to the current teaching pattern in elderly education.
In China, the “teaching assessment” in elderly education is based on a flexible system. We use a “credit bank” management system to record the process and achievements of students in school. This system can be used as a record of the study of our elderly students. For students who have completed a major (or who have completed a certain amount of credits), we will award a certificate, an honorary diploma, or even a college diploma. At the same time, “making contributions to the society” is also a way of assessing teaching in elderly education. Some elderly people help pass on traditional culture after having learned the folk skills. Some have changed from students to teachers after they have achieved a fairly good result in their studies. Some other elderly students have become volunteers and they actively participate in the public welfare activities. They are enthusiastic in serving the society. They are ready to demonstrate their talents through serving others, and to constantly improve their civilized manners and personal charm. They obtain “positive energy” from elderly education and, in turn, become the new creators and disseminators of such energy.
As we all know, elderly education in some countries has developed for quite a long time and it is now relatively mature. Those countries have formed and summarized their own practices and experiences, and they play a certain model and influential role in the international community. Now, however, in the context of the “Belt and Road” development, we look forward to carrying out all kinds of exchanges with our partners and to enhancing our mutual understanding and trust. We should learn from each other and draw on the excellent experiences of other countries in developing elderly education. We should further (at a wider scope, higher level, and deeper fashion) promote the cooperation concerning “teaching theory”, “teaching contents”, “teaching pattern”, and “teaching assessment” in the field of elderly education. We should strive to turn our elderly education into one with the following characteristics —— It can go beyond the boundaries, systems, cultures, and other differences; It can serve as a symbol of modernization and informatization; It can help alleviate the pressure of ageing; It can help improve the quality of life and the quality of remaining years of the elderly; It can face the future confidently; It can help enhance and demonstrate the value of the elderly; And finally it can help contribute to the development of the society.