Can’t teach old dogs new tricks? Nonsense. Tips for learning later in life

Change, often rapid and disorienting, is today’s norm. Even things our grandparents took for granted – manual typewriters, telegrams, smelling salts, corsets – have disappeared into antique shops and museums. We change jobs and even careers many times in one lifetime. We travel more. It seems like we adapt to new technologies almost weekly.

What hasn’t changed is that human beings need to learn so they can adapt and thrive in new circumstances. Is this possible for older people? It’s common knowledge that children are voracious learners but the famous cliche suggests that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This simply isn’t true.

As research conducted by my colleagues and I has shown, learning is a lifelong process. It’s also life-wide: we learn in all kinds of situations besides schools and colleges – in our families, workplaces, communities and through leisure activities. And it’s life-deep: it’s about emotions, morality, cultural and spiritual development, not just the intellect.