ABSTRACT
Preparing a chapter for the third edition of this book has given me the opportunity to review the latest developments in instrumental and expressive orientations as a means for assessing people’s educational needs throughout the life span. Although there have been a few dissertations related to the subject over the last 15 years, few have extended the initial conceptions I presented in the first edition of this book (Londoner, 1978). Indeed, Peterson (1983) viewed those conceptions as the only major attempt so far to develop a theoretical framework for examining the educational wants of older people. I view this situation with both pride and sadness—pride in what I was able to contribute conceptually to the area, and sadness that others have neither extended nor refuted the theoretical base. Although program planning has grown increasingly more sophisticated (Caffarella, 1988; Knowles, 1980), the same cannot be said for the area of needs assessment for adults and specifically for persons of later years (PLYs). Much of the literature has confined itself simply to describing needs assessment techniques and strategies that program planners can use in creating educational activities for PLYs.
