EDUCATION, SPIRITUALITY, RELIGION AND TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING IN AGED ADULTS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

The purpose of this research is to understand the educational conse quences of spirituality and religion in the learning experiences of the aged people interviewed, who attend classes at the “University of the Third Age”. In particular, the survey intends to investigate whether the spiritual dimension and being religious can transform the respondents’ way of learning and how this changes their ways of relating to others and of living their advanced age in life. The sample is made up of thirty senior persons. The investigation method is phenomenological in the research objective, while in the heuristic phase, the data were analyzed according to the methodology of the Grounded Theory. The results of the survey showed that the meaning that elders attach to their learning experiences, depends on their spiritual and religious being