Addressing Ageism in Students: A Systematic Review of the Pedagogical Intervention Literature

With the rapid aging of the population, strategies that can be incorporated into the curriculum are needed, including social work and medicine. Over the past 20 years, pedagogical strategies to improve attitudes toward older adults and gerontological practice along with knowledge about aging have been tested. Instructors are seeking methods that are evidence-based; thus, a need for a systematic review of this literature is warranted. For this review, 58 articles met inclusion and were evaluated to determine the best approaches to positively impacting knowledge about, and attitudes toward, older people and gerontological practice. Interventions to change knowledge are the most straightforward with support for aging courses, modules, and infusion approaches. A combination of information with an experiential activity (e.g., service learning) was the most common pedagogical approach; the evidence suggests that this approach can change student attitudes. Addressing gerontological interest appears to be more challenging with fewer studies reporting a positive change. Future research should seek to test additional approaches that may influence student interest in gerontological practice, and additional studies that seek to test online strategies should be conducted, given the prominence of these courses.     

Inquiry-based learning in higher education: administrators’ perspectives on integrating inquiry pedagogy into the curriculum

Inquiry-based learning is one approach to improving the quality of undergraduate education by moving toward more student-directed, interactive methods of learning while focusing on learning how to learn. This paper deals with a missing component in the inquiry-related literature—the extra-pedagogical challenges of introducing and maintaining inquiry-based learning in the curriculum. Based in the collective experience of McMaster University, a mid-size Canadian university that has been a pioneer in inquiry pedagogy, the paper describes the challenges administrators faced in supporting the introduction of inquiry-based learning as components of traditional courses, as inquiry-based courses, and as inquiry-based degree programs. Derived from interviews, the paper presents a series of strategies and lessons for introducing and maintaining inquiry pedagogy in the curriculum. These lessons will be broadly useful to administrators, curriculum designers and faculty developers and should be widely applicable to institutes of higher education.     

高职院校学前教育专业群建设的研究与实践——以武汉城市职业学院为例

依托传统的幼儿教育专业,整合婴幼儿早期教育与服务等相关专业,构建学前教育专业群,有助于高职院校增强社会服务能力、提高办学效益、形成特色和品牌,具有重要的现实意义。从武汉城市职业学院的实践看,学前教育专业群建设要以平台课程、实训基地、教学团队、教学资源库、就业服务体系为重点建设内容,必须从实际出发,做好科学规划,选好突破口,注重内涵质量,创新人才培养模式,提高管理效能。     

Curricular Integration as Innovation: Faculty Insights on Barriers to Institutionalizing Change

In the burgeoning literature on infusing undergraduate research and creative activities into the curriculum of research-intensive institutions, few studies have examined the perspectives of the faculty mentors who provide the individualized opportunities for students. Based on focus group data from 50 faculty mentors, we document faculty perceptions of the challenges to infusing undergraduate student scholarship across the curriculum. We conclude with practical suggestions for other institutions seeking to implement innovative change initiatives in general and to broaden opportunities for undergraduate research and creative activities in particular.     

Enhancing Social Work Practice with Older Adults: The Role of Infusing Gerontology Content into the Master of Social Work Foundation Curriculum

Based on a geriatric enrichment (GeroRich) effort, this study examines outcomes of infusing aging content across the master of social work (MSW) foundation curriculum. In a longitudinal research design tracking one class, there were no significant changes observed in students' levels of experience and interest in gerontological social work. Significant increases were observed in self-rated levels of gerontological knowledge and practice skills—clinical and macro. Full-time status, less gerontological experience, and higher knowledge predicted greater practice skills at the follow-up. Implications for educating the next generation of social workers to better meet the needs of older adults and their families are discussed.     

The pedagogical benefits of enacting positive psychology practices through a student–faculty partnership approach to academic development

Academic development that supports the enactment of positive psychology practices through student–faculty pedagogical partnership can increase faculty confidence and capacity in their first year in a new institution. When student partners practice affirmation and encouragement of strengths-based growth, processes of faculty acclimation and self-authoring can be accelerated. This article presents a student–faculty pedagogical partnership program and positive psychology practices that focus on faculty strengths and capacities as the foundation for reinforcing and revising existing pedagogical strategies and for sustaining energy for continued development. It combines collaborative autoethnographic and comparative case study approaches to investigate the pedagogical benefits of these practices.     

CONCEPTUALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF A COURSE ON AGING TO INFANCY: A LIFE COURSE RETROSPECTIVE

This paper describes the conceptualization and implementation of an innovative undergraduate interdisciplinary course that uses life course theory to capture the depth and breadth of the human experience. The collaboration among four faculty representing gerontological social work, occupational therapy, nursing, and dietetics and human nutrition is described, as are the unique teaching strategies utilized. In addition, an unusual retrospective approach to human development is highlighted. Through their participation in this course, future health care practitioners will be able to work effectively with clients throughout the life span in an interdisciplinary environment.     

Seven strategies for enabling faculty success in distance education

Many challenges associated with distance education and technology integration initiatives focus on faculty issues and concerns. This article analyzes these difficulties by identifying from the literature current trends affecting faculty, faculty motivators, and faculty challenges. Then, following this review and analysis, the article presents seven strategies for university administrators and faculty to consider as part of their own strategic plan to mitigate faculty concerns and ensure program success. The seven strategies discussed include the following: (1) enable colleges and departments to accept more responsibility for distance education activities; (2) provide faculty more information about distance education programs and activities; (3) encourage faculty to incorporate technology into their traditional classrooms; (4) provide strong incentives for faculty to participate in distance education; (5) improve training and instructional support for distance education faculty; (6) build a stronger distance education faculty community; and (7) encourage more distance education scholarship and research.     

Strategies for infusing curricula with a multicultural perspective

We describe pedagogical strategies for infusing a multicultural perspective into courses across a variety of disciplines; these methods have proven effective with students who are predominantly Anglo and oriented toward careers in the human services. The strategies include personalizing information through vicarious learning and case studies; inculcating critical thinking skills; simulations; literary analysis; and cooperative learning in large classes. Changes were documented in student attitudes, emotions, knowledge, professional skills, and the classroom environment. We review lessons learned about the process of curriculum revision, especially the importance of faculty support systems and impediments to implementation.All of the authors are faculty members in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University; Drs. MacPhee, Oltjenbruns, and Kreutzer are Associate Professors and Dr. Fritz is a Professor. Each of the authors is a trainer for the multicultural infusion project. David MacPhee holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His primary research interests include primary prevention for at-risk youth and families, and multicultural and gender issues. Kevin Oltjenbruns completed her doctoral degree in educational and psychological studies at the University of Colorado. The principle focus of her work has been on grief and loss, career development, and student retention. As Associate Dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences, she spearheaded the multicultural infusion project described in this article. Janet Fritz's graduate work was completed at Cornell University. Her research interests include cognitive development, children's self-worth, stress and coping, and cross-cultural variations in socialization. Jill Kreutzer earned her Ph.D. in education from Colorado State University. She is interested in adolescent development, especially resilience among at-risk youth, and career development.Portions of this work were presented at the 5th Annual National Conference on Racial & Ethnic Relations in American Higher Education (June, 1992).Requests for curriculum and training materials should be directed to the Dean's Office, College of Applied Human Sciences.     

Searching for sexual revolutions in India: non-governmental organisation-designed sex education programmes as a means towards gender equality and sexual empowerment in New Delhi,India

At the foundation of most inequalities in expression of sexuality lie social constructions of gender. In this paper, sex education is considered as a possibility to challenge sexism and promote healthy and self-affirmative sex lives. In the past decade, the discourse of sex education in India has become a ‘battle of morality’ where concerned citizens condemn sex education on the grounds it may encourage sexual activity and immoral conduct (e.g. promiscuity or infidelity). The work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is an alternative to the governmental national curriculum plan. This paper discusses NGO potential in terms of sexual empowerment by examining beliefs and understanding, choices of information, strategies and methods, and approaches apparent in sex education programmes and projects. Through qualitative data, findings were analysed by constructing a sexual empowerment model that divides components of sex education into four parts and utilises theories of empowerment. The main findings include that all four components of sex education – foundation, content, strategies and approaches – show great potential to challenge gender inequalities in regard to sexuality. Sexual health programmes and projects are seen to be highly participatory, deliberative and encouraging of critical thinking. Some concerns are highlighted: the strong focus on girls as the main actors of change, and external limitations such as parents and institutions.     

Curriculum Infusion as College Student Mental Health Promotion Strategy

This article describes efforts to increase faculty involvement in suicide prevention and mental health promotion via curriculum infusion. The participants were faculty, staff, and 659 students enrolled in classes of a large eastern university from Fall 2007–Spring 2011. Counselors, health educators, and medical providers recruited faculty from a variety of disciplines to develop mental health promotion programs in their courses. This article describes seven such collaborations, illustrating how faculty was able to encourage students to see connections between their academic content and real world college experience, and the implications for mental health. As a result of these collaborations, faculty had a deeper understanding of mental health issues and resources on campus and an appreciation for the opportunity to collaborate in novel ways. After curriculum infusion was introduced to the campus faculty referrals to counseling did not noticeably increase, but there was increased faculty engagement in mental health programs and promotion.     

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND THE BABY BOOMER GENERATION: RESEARCH,POLICY AND PRACTICE PERSPECTIVES Edited by Laura B. Wilson and Sharon P. Simson

A unique development program was designed to assist faculty in integrating gerontological concepts in selected undergraduate courses. The disciplines of social services, human performance, psychology, nutrition, audiology, and nursing were targeted for the program. The faculty development program took place in four phases over a 17‐month period. In Phase 1, faculty members studied theoretical concepts in gerontology relevant to their academic discipline. During Phase 2, faculty members obtained practical experience in gerontological settings to complement the knowledge gained in the first phase. In Phase 3, the faculty developed instructional units for their courses based on their Phase 1 and 2 experiences. During Phase 4 the faculty pilot tested, implemented, and revised the curricular materials. In addition, Phase 4 included opportunities for each faculty member to develop a research agenda for the continued study of gerontology. As a result of knowledge gained in the project, 10 faculty members developed SO instructional units, which were integrated into existing undergraduate courses. Approximately 300 students demonstrated significant gains in knowledge in gerontological concepts during the first semester of implementation. It is estimated that continued use of the modules will result in more than 800 students per year being exposed to gerontological concepts.     

From the Editor

With the rollout of edTPA, Common Core Standards (CCS), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there is renewed interest in teacher education programs providing an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum. Yet, future teachers are under increased pressure to pass standardized exams, such as the MTEL, WIFOR and PRAXIS, with a focus on content-specific instruction. Curriculum and assessment policy initiatives present contradictory messages regarding best practice. This research study examines an interdisciplinary approach to teaching content in one early childhood education teacher preparation program. Teaching that crosses disciplines and honors the content and epistemology of each discipline is complex and challenging to convey. Data for this yearlong study exploring student and faculty understanding of teaching from an interdisciplinary perspective at a small liberal arts college included semester-end surveys, focal student interviews, final projects, and faculty surveys. Based on this research, we suggest that integration of content area specialists in college curriculum courses, cross-institutional attention to effective integration strategies, and purposeful interdisciplinary field placements are needed as early childhood educators face continued policy reform.     

Symbolic resources and marketing strategies in Ontario higher education: a comparative analysis

Existing research on marketing within PSE tends to focus on homogeneous groups of high-status organisations. This study ameliorates this gap in the literature, conducting a comparative analysis of promotional materials produced by public universities and community colleges in Ontario, Canada. We find that these two groups draw on unique strategies to communicate their quality to external constituents. Public universities emphasise faculty and institutional-level accomplishments, such as research grants and rankings. Meanwhile, community colleges, lacking access to these symbolic resources, employ corporate-like strategies, such as taglines and non-traditional logos.     

Assessing Standards in the “Real” Kindergarten Classroom

The importance of using standards as key components in the curriculum is documented in both popular and professional literature. One aspect of integrating standards into the curriculum is the role of assessment. The focus of this paper is to prepare early childhood teachers to assess children's knowledge of the standards within the routines and centers provided in the kindergarten learning environment. Teachers can use this information to develop authentic assessment strategies which typically occurs in a child's learning during center and group time.     

DEVELOPING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY GERIATRIC CURRICULUM: THE PERILS AND PAYOFFS OF COLLABORATION

Almost all of the emphasis within interdisciplinary education in geriatrics has focused on the training of clinical teams, to the exclusion of an appreciation for the unique issues facing educational teams. This paper explores the perils and payoffs of the development and implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum by an inter-institutional faculty team at the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center (RIGEC). Following a discussion of the principles and concepts guiding the development of the curriculum - an interdisciplinary team approach, a goal-based focus, and continuous quality improvement - the structure and implementation of the curriculum development are described. Special attention is directed toward process and outcome evaluation issues. Lastly, recommendations related to the educational team process are suggested as guidelines for faculty developing academic teams in gerontology and geriatrics. Overall, the unique and multifaceted challenges of educational teams are highlighted and lessons learned from the RIGEC experience summarized.     

Facilitating Holistic Curriculum Development

There is a movement in higher education to think of a curriculum less as a sequence of independent courses and more as a set of highly integrated learning and assessment experiences designed to help students develop clearly defined outcomes. This paper reports on a case study that illustrates how internal curriculum assessment processes used by an environmental science and policy department in an institution of higher education lead to the creation of an innovative tenure-track faculty line for someone whose primary activities and scholarship focus not on traditional disciplinary scholarship but instead on coordinating the holistic development of an integrated curriculum. This paper goes on to show how I, the person hired into this position, am facilitating the coordinated development of a senior thesis programme, a junior entry course into the major and a disciplinary writing programme for the purpose of developing a more integrated curriculum.     

Understanding the Work and Perceptions of Teaching Focused Faculty in a Changing Academic Landscape

Teaching Focused Faculty (TFF) roles are growing across Canada and around the world, raising questions about how to understand the nature of faculty work and how faculty in non-traditional work distributions feel about their work. Our study is the first attempt to survey TFF members’ work and job attitudes at large research intensive universities in Canada. Our data contribute to the literature on the nature of faculty work, by revealing that TFF engage in a wide variety of work, including teaching, service, curriculum leadership, and often research in pedagogy and/or disciplines. TFF report mixed messages about what their departments and institutions expect of them. Our data also contribute to the literature on how faculty feel about their work. Consistent with other research on faculty job attitudes, TFF report valuing their jobs highly. Our data also reveal that feeling integrated into mainstream institutional culture is a particularly important contributor to this sense of value. Taken together, our findings can be used to inform the research literature on faculty work, as well as by administrators seeing to implement or enhance TFF ranks at their institutions.     

Teaching Diversity across Disciplines: Reflections from African-American Faculty in Four Different Academic Settings

The authors, male and female African-American faculty from different academic disciplines at predominantly white institutions, share personal reflections on their experiences teaching postsecondary graduate and professional courses that focus on diversity and multicultural themes. This article provides tools and strategies for improving the overall effectiveness for those who teach diversity courses from a framework the authors have codified as a “3-C” perspective: context, characters, and curriculum.     

基于一致性建构理论的高校课程思政建设路径探析

立德树人是高校的立身之本,课程思政是实现高校立德树人根本任务的途径.将课程思政融入课程建设,需要将思想政治内容贯穿于课程目标设计、教学活动安排和教学评价等各个重要环节.一致性建构理论是以学生为中心的课程设计方法,课程设计需要遵循预期学习成效、教学活动、评价任务和成绩评定四个步骤.基于一致性建构理论,遵循其四个步骤探讨了...