PROGRAM EVALUATION: MEETING THE APPLIED RESEARCH EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF MASTER'S LEVEL STUDENTS IN GERONTOLOGY

The research education offered by a master's gerontology program should focus on the career and academic goals of the student population as determined by the nature of the particular program. The purpose of this article is to describe how the Master's of Arts (M.A.) gerontology program at UNCC addresses the research methods needs of its students through a two-course series. The basic research educational needs of the students are addressed in a brief discussion of the first course. The primary focus, however, is on this program's inclusion of a second course on evaluation research. Evaluation research is described as an effective way to address the applied research needs of the students of UNCC M.A. gerontology program, through heightening awareness of accountability to investors of services for older adults, linking both the generator and consumer roles of research, and inculcating a philosophy of professionalization essential to the professional development of the students.     

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES,NEEDS, AND INTERESTS OF OLDER ADULTS WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

This article presents baseline information on the educational experiences, needs, and interests of a statewide sample of older adults with mental retardation. Data were collected through an interview with the older person with mental retardation and through a questionnaire sent to a knowledgeable other who was matched to each older adult. Findings are presented on previous educational experiences, current educational opportunities, and educational needs and interests. Results indicate that this group of older persons strongly desires continued opportunity for learning, particularly in academic and independent living areas. Two subgroups within this sample were least likely to have access to instructional opportunities: persons 55 years or older and persons living in community residences with less than 24‐hour care. Access to this instruction would improve the independence and quality of life of both these groups, as it would for the entire sample. Implications of the findings for educators in gerontology, mental retardation, and adult education are discussed.     

DEVELOPING A CONFERENCE FOR THE ELDERLY AS PART OF A UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY CLASS

The undergraduate course Educational Gerontology taught at Hampton University includes the development and implementation of a community conference for older adults. The conference is developed in conjunction with the local senior center. Students spend two hours each week throughout the semester observing and participating in the programming at the senior center in order to become familiar with the needs and interests of older adults. During scheduled class times, students select an appropriate conference theme and begin conference plans and committee assignments. The class culminates with the conducting of the conference at the center. Such a project gives students the opportunity to get valuable hands‐on experience in educational gerontology programming.     

Making connections: students’ reflection on aging competency approach in gerontology education

The increase of the US older adult population requires additional professionally trained staff in health and social services. Exposing knowledge and skills of gerontology to address aging competency among student in higher education can better prepare for students’ future educational and career planning. The aim of this study is to understand students’ reflections on an aging competency approach in an Introduction to Gerontology online class. Students’ reflections revealed insights including the increase of aging knowledge and skills, empathic understanding increased through a self-awareness approach, attitudes changed toward older adults, impact of experiential interviews on students’ understanding of aging. The implementation of a combined pedagogy in course construction will be discussed.     

GRADUATE TRAINING IN EDUCATION AND AGING: RESULTS OF A NATIONAL SURVEY; PART 1

The graduate departments of adult education at 88 universities in the United States were surveyed for information pertinent to their programs in and about aging. Results show that 55% of the departments offer no courses dealing exclusively with education and aging. Only one department offers a program concentration per se in educational gerontology. Those adult education academic programs that have a seeming interest in education and aging typically offer only an isolated course or two. Much needs to be done if adult education programs are to begin preparing people to meet the learning needs of older adults.     

A MODULAR COURSE APPROACH TO IN‐SERVICE AND PRE‐SERVICE TRAINING IN GERONTOLOGY

In order to meet both in‐service and pre‐service training needs in gerontology, North Country Community College has developed an innovative one‐year certificate program. Under the assumption that persons working with the aged in a rural area must have a diverse group of skills to draw upon, the gerontology certificate stresses course work in: communication skills, culture variability, gerontology knowledge, management skills, and service skills. The curriculum approach taken is that of competency based education, with most of the skills courses put into a modular course format. After the first year of the certificate, 53% (N = 65) of the students in the certificate courses are adults or community professionals turning to this community college program to upgrade skills or acquire new ones. This certificate is beginning to meet the training needs in a rural area that were only previously addressed by occasional workshops for the human service practitioner.     

TEACHING ABOUT THE LIFE COURSE PERSPECTIVE: A CLASS PROJECT

The life course perspective is a dynamic framework that attends to individual and family lives within historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. Students of the life course are increasingly interested in how such a perspective can be used to understand family lives. Opportunities for students to examine the utility of the life course perspective to family gerontology may enhance their understanding of the perspective's content and application with older family relationships. Students in a graduate course with a focus on life course and family gerontology completed a project in which they identified life course concepts and developed a model that could be used to explain relationship interactions between immigrant mothers and their adult daughters. Student feedback indicated that the assignment sharpened their knowledge of life course concepts, made the concepts more "real," and increased their understanding of the connections between life course concepts. Suggestions for incorporating this project in another graduate course and using a similar project in an undergraduate course are provided.     

Integrating Aging and Civic Engagement into the Curriculum

This conceptual paper is based on interdisciplinary work the authors have participated in as part of the renewed push for civic engagement, the various forms it takes, and the multiple constituencies involved in its promotion. We focus on what theoretical and empirical content could be incorporated into courses on aging so that students can be prepared to critically think about, understand, and analyze both practice and policy aspects of civic engagement and aging. We provide three learning cases that can be used as classroom exercises, suggest sample assignments, and examine implications of engagement for older adults. We append a sample syllabus that can be used as a framework to convey this content in an elective course or as a module of a social gerontology course. The call for civic engagement is being heard throughout the United States across sectors and across population groups. In this article, we begin with background information on the renewed push for civic engagement, the various forms it takes, and the multiple constituencies involved in its promotion. Following a brief contextual background, we focus on theoretical and empirical content that could be incorporated into courses on aging so that students can be prepared to understand and critically analyze the implications of civic engagement for older adults. Four units that could constitute a one-credit module or become part of an existing gerontology course are provided, complete with discussion questions, learning cases that can be used in classroom exercises, as well as sample assignments. We conclude with a sample course syllabus around which this module could be constructed in order to convey this content.     

ASSESSING CHANGES IN ATTITUDES ABOUT AGING: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS AND A STANDARDIZED MEASURE

Research has shown that learning more about successful aging and the aging process can be reflected in positive attitudinal change. Further,individuals having frequent contact with older adults generally have more positive attitudes. The purpose of the present study was to assess attitudinal change in two gerontology courses, one sophomore and one senior-level, using two methods of measurement: a standardized measure, the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) and self-reported beliefs about older adults. A secondary goal was to facilitate meaningful interaction by requiring students to conduct a structured life-history interview with an older adult. The sample consisted of 55 students with a mean age of 27. Students completed the ASD and the self-reports at the beginning of the semester and after completing their interviews. Students also were asked to reflect upon any changes in attitude over the time period between assessments. In both classes, results of repeated measures MANOVA on the ASD indicated significant positive attitudinal change from pretest to posttest. Content analysis of self-reported beliefs provided converging validation. While students indicated classroom activities as important for attitudinal development, many specifically cited the interview activity as an influential and valuable experience.     

TEACHING AGING CONTENT TO UNIVERSITY-LEVEL NON-GERONTOLOGY MAJORS

The older adult population in America will significantly increase in the future. Older adults have important needs for recreation and leisure services (). The author taught a class titled “Leisure Services for Older Adults” for over 24 years at the University of Florida. He has taught gerontology and recreation by teaching about life and living. The topics in this course ranged from life expectancy, nutrition, fitness, sports, hobbies, special events, outdoor recreation, drama, animal-assisted therapy, horticultural therapy, bibliotherapy, music, and art. Creativity and its importance in old age also were taught. Older adults visited the class as guest lecturers, and select videos were used. Students performed community service at local nursing homes.     

智力落后的成因及早期预防

智力落后受到全世界的关注,它涉及社会、医疗、教育和心理等重大问题。许多研究数据表明智力落后在我国残疾人总数中占有很大的比率,智力落后对我国社会、家庭等各方面带来了负担,减少智力落后人数关键在于早期预防。     

“I was giving someone who didn’t have a voice a voice”: exploring qualitative mini-research projects as a tool to teach students about aging

ABSTRACT

In the study of gerontology, fieldwork with older adults is often used to enhance students’ understanding of the aging process. While assignments based on interactions with older adults are a common practice in teaching students enrolled in gerontology studies, we know less about the impact of such activities on students from other disciplines. This paper summarizes students’ experiences with an assignment offered to a diverse cohort of undergraduate students who took a course in social gerontology. To complete this assignment, students had to interview an older adult, summarize the life story of the participant, apply a theoretical perspective to the older adult’s life story, and reflect on the process. Analyzing data derived from 72 assignments and 10 semi-structured interviews with students who were enrolled in the course, this paper examines students’ experiences with this assignment. Specifically, we identify what aspects of the assignment students found beneficial, what aspects they found challenging, and in what ways this assignment helped students to enhance their understanding of aging. Our findings suggest that students found it challenging to recruit an older adult for an interview and struggled with the semi-structured nature of the interview process. All students found the actual interview process to be extremely rewarding and beneficial for their learning. In discussion, we provide some recommendations on how to offer this type of assignment to a diverse group of students enrolling in the courses on social gerontology.     

Make or break: the role and support needs of academic advisors in work-integrated learning courses

ABSTRACT

The role of academic advisors in work-integrated learning courses is crucial to student success, yet poorly understood. This research aimed to understand the role and support needs of academic advisors by conducting interviews, a survey, and a focus group within a service learning program in Queensland, Australia. Participants identified rewards in observing student transformation and supporting students to contribute to social justice causes. However, the role had high demands in terms of pastoral support. Although academic advisors reported strong support mechanisms, they identified gaps in supporting them to meet the needs of international students and students with mental health issues. Academic advisors need strong mentoring or supervisory support to deal with diverse student issues, clear processes for tracking and managing students, training and resources to deal with special needs students, and opportunities for team building and bonding. Supporting academic advisors could help to better support students to successfully complete internships.     

Outcome Assessment of Mentorship Program

This paper reports results of a survey that studied the outcomes of a mentorship program. Students enrolled in a core course for the MA and certificate in gerontology programs were required to select either a long-term care service, a program in aging, or an agency providing services for senior adults, where they could spend a day interacting with a mentor. A wide range of sites were available and students could select one site for 8 hours or two sites for 4 hours each. The researchers were interested in assessing both the opinions of the students who participated and of the mentors themselves about this educational experience. A survey that had a series of open-ended and close-ended questions was administered to all graduate students who participated as well as to the mentors at their various sites. This paper discusses the implications of this program as a model for other gerontology programs. It delineates mentor and student suggestions about the strengths and weaknesses of the current set-up of the mentorship program. Suggestions are made for further study of this pedagogical tool.     

LIFESTYLE MANAGEMENT,PROACTION, AND EDUCATIONAL EFFICACY

Lifestyle management is gaining new popularity among individuals dedicated to maintaining and improving the quality of their life during middle age and as they grow older. Since many aspects of well‐being and life satisfaction in later life have been linked to good health, lifestyle management would appear to provide ideal educational gerontology programming content. This idea provides the focus for a renewal of middle‐aged and older people's participation in education gerontology.

It is important to stress that the potential for a renewal in educational gerontology is contingent upon a reexamination of the approach employed in program planning. Mature adults must be afforded a renewed understanding of the efficacy of education throughout life as a means for achieving goals related to greater quality as well as quantity of life.

This discussion will focus on lifestyle management as a learning area that should become increasingly attractive to middle‐aged and older persons, and the role educational efficacy and proaction play as important precursors to lifestyle behavior attitude change.     

高校大学生志愿服务活动课程化管理初探

高校志愿服务是学生课外思想政治教育平台,为有效利用这一教育平台,需要以课程化方式开展活动,明确相关教学目的、教学要求、教学方法,在此基础上安排理论课程、实践课程、分享课程、环境教育课程等,并从理论与实践两个方面共同考核学生“学习情况”,为大学生志愿服务活动创造良好的课程化学习与思政教育管理平台。     

Putting educational gerontology principles to the test: a quantitative confirmation of the empowering benefits of liberal arts courses

ABSTRACT

The humanist and critical principles of educational gerontology attribute different goals to education in later life. Self-Actualization is the goal of humanist educational gerontology, while empowerment, emancipation, and social change are the goals of critical educational gerontology. Liberal arts education is dominant in later-life learning. Both the humanist and the critical philosophies of learning in older age claim that this type of education is not empowering. Empowerment is a contested concept that has been defined through a set of constructs ranging from psychological capacities to attitudes and behaviors. In terms of capital, empowerment translates into gains in identity and social capital, operationalized in the variables agency and social and civic participation, respectively. The present study investigated the empowering potential of liberal arts courses using the BeLL survey data of 7,338 adult learners. Through a series of ANOVAs and a regression model, we found that age, gender, educational attainment, the number of courses, and changes in agency are significantly associated with changes in social and civic participation. We concluded that liberal arts education does empower adult learners, especially older adults, women, and individuals with lower educational attainment. Given that goal-related claims in the principles of educational gerontology have been empirically challenged, we recommend a new statement of principles that takes into account the latest developments in the field, as well as learners’ agential capacities and the structural inequalities they face.     

GERONTOLOGY EDUCATION FOR RECREATION SERVICE MAJORS: MEETING THE DEMANDS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Due to an overwhelming increase in the population of older Americans in the next 30 years, many professions are preparing to meet the demands of an increasingly older clientele. This research was conducted to assess whether recreation professionals' level of education in gerontology is adequate to meet the demands of older adults in the future. It was found that opportunities for education in gerontology are abundant in many recreation and leisure studies programs. Most recreation curricula have gerontology classes and opportunities for minors in gerontology. Those that were lacking in this area were at least found to cover the topics in courses on lifespan development. However, it remains somewhat unclear how many students are taking advantage of these opportunities.     

Employment Outcomes of Gerontology Certificate Graduates

Students desiring specialized skills and knowledge in working with older adults frequently pursue gerontology certificates. This paper reports the results of a study of gerontology certificate graduates which examined their educational backgrounds, their employment status, the predictive factors which led to aging-related jobs, and their recommendations for improvement to the certificate program. Certificate graduates came from varying educational backgrounds. Most were able to use their gerontology training, usually by being employed in aging-related work or else by utilizing their skills in other professional capacities. Implications for job placement and curriculum development are discussed.     

Students' Knowledge of Aging and Career Preferences

The increased number of older adults attributes to a rising need for future professionals to work in gerontology. Understanding the influence of students' career choices is important. A qualitative study was conducted after students' taking a gerontology course to explore students' knowledge and career preference in gerontology. The results were that students reported higher competency in that their knowledge was higher. Although increased knowledge did not necessarily encourage students to choose careers in gerontology, it may have made students more amenable toward accepting working with the aging population in the future. The study offers suggestions on how to increase students' competency level in practice.