EDUCATION ABOUT AGING FOR NIGERIAN ADOLESCENTS

This study reports an investigation of the perceptions of Nigerian adolescents concerning problems of different classes of older adults in Nigeria. A sample of 1,063 students from secondary schools and universities completed a questionnaire about adult life in Nigeria. Results show that the primary sources of information about aging are personal observation and instructions from community elders, friends, and peer groups. It was also found that both the educated and illiterate aged in elite communities are perceived to have more serious problems. Of the students surveyed, 55% prefer to grow old in traditional communities. It is suggested that aging education be provided in secondary schools and universities so that students may acquire adequate knowledge of problems and issues affecting older adult life.     

RETIRED EDUCATORS AS ADVOCATES: PROMOTING K-12 EDUCATION ABOUT AGING

Retired educators and other older adults can be influential advocates for K-12 education about aging, by promoting balanced and accurate education related to aging across grade levels and core disciplines. This article presents the processes, outcomes, and evaluation of a pilot project involving retired educators in Colorado and Montana. The experiences from this pilot project can help guide future efforts of retired older adults to increase teacher awareness of the need for K-12 education about aging.     

AGING EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

From kindergarten to college, as today's students learn to see the world as a global village, they can also learn that aging is part of the human condition, that older people do exist, and that the increasing numbers of older people is both a national resource and a national problem. Students can develop an awareness of the interdependence not only of cultures and countries but also of generations. Still scarce, though increasingly available, are curricular materials and programs that help young people explore how we and other cultures deal with aging and the elderly.     

CHILDREN'S FEARS ABOUT PERSONAL AGING

The present study was designed to investigate the effect age has on children's attitudes toward personalaging and if anxiety over aging was a contributing factor in the development of these attitudes. A total of 206 students (108 males and 98 females), ranging in age from 9-17 participated in this study.The participants were drawn from a religious education program for public school students and a parochial elementary school in a central Massachusetts town. The participants showed little real concern over the prospect of aging. Some differences were seen on the four subsets of the scale used. The participant's age was the most salient predictor in the assessment of attitudes toward personal aging. A close relationship with a grandparent contributed to positive attitudes and lessened fear of older adults.     

WHAT ADOLESCENTS KNOW ABOUT AGING

Increasing the amount of contact with older adults is often proposed as a way to inform young people about aging. This study compares adolescents’ knowledge of aging with the amount and quality of contact they have with an older adult and compares adolescents’ knowledge of aging in 1978 with their knowledge in 1985. The results indicate that adolescents are very misinformed or uninformed about aging and older adults. Profiles of the responses on individual items from Palmore's “Facts on Aging” reveal qualitative differences associated with gender, degree of contact, and changes over time in the nature of the adolescents’ knowledge of aging. How adolescents perceive older adults and the implications this has for educational efforts are discussed.     

AGING EDUCATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PREPARING FOR THE 21st CENTURY

Institutions of higher education have a stake in the demographic shift that will occur in the 21st century. Employers will depend on colleges and universities to produce a trained workforce and the general public will request information about aging processes and how to successfully age. By responding to the demands of employers and the general public, institutions of higher education will be faced with a number of challenges. This article considers six challenges facing institutions of higher education in the 21st century and how higher education might respond to these challenges. Potential barriers to meeting these challenges are also discussed.     

AGING AND HIGHER EDUCATION: PROSPECTS FOR INTERVENTION

Consistently low participation in higher education programs by older adults suggests the need for theory‐derived research efforts to uncover barriers to educational activity in later life. In the present paper it is argued that an understanding of adulthood educational participation be developed according to a criterion of environmental and situationally dependent factors rather than solely to one of inexorable and cross‐situational biophysical decline. Specific environmental and organismic factors that may relate to chronically low rates of educational participation by older learners are pinpointed and described and suggestions are made for examining and rearranging the ecological context of life‐span education in order to stimulate greater educational involvement in the later years. Changes in cross‐age attitudes and behaviors that may result from an influx of older adult learners into college and university classrooms are also considered in light of recent research evidence on inter‐generational contact.     

PARTICIPATION IN A COURSE ON AGING: KNOWLEDGE,ATTITUDES, AND ANXIETY ABOUT AGING IN ONESELF AND OTHERS

Knowledge, anxiety, and attitudes about older adults and one's own aging were assessed in 256 college students. The Facts on Aging Quiz (Palmore, 1988), the Knowledge of Aging and the Elderly Quiz (Kline, Scialfa, Stier, & Babbitt, 1990), the Anxiety about Aging Scale (Lasher & Faulkender, 1993) and the Aging Semantic Differential (Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969) were administered at the end of the semester to students enrolled in an upper level psychology course on aging and students enrolled in an introductory psychology course (who had never had a course on aging). Comparisons of those finishing the psychology of aging course and those never having taken a course on aging revealed significant differences in knowledge of aging and the elderly and attitudes toward the average 70-year-old. Interestingly, the two groups of students did not differ in personal anxiety about aging and attitudes about one's own aging. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to attitudinal judgments of oneself versus others and the differential benefits of education for attitudes and anxiety about other old adults versus attitudes and anxiety about one's own aging.     

EDUCATION TO PROMOTE HEALTHY AGING IN HUNGARY

Demographic changes have altered medical practice, shifting the focus to the health care problems of the aged. These changes challenge health policy and services and require adjustments in the content of both undergraduate and postgraduate health professional curricula. The undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching at the Gerontology Center of the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest is described. In the future, it will be important to include medical gerontology in the curricula of all four medical schools in Hungary.     

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.     

INTERGENERATIONAL DAYCARE AND PRESCHOOLERS' ATTITUDES ABOUT AGING

The evidence that intergenerational contact influences children's attitudes about the elderly or aging, in either a positive or negative manner, is mixed. In an attempt to shed light on this issue, perceptions of the elderly were assessed for 33 3-to 5- year-old children enrolled in either an intergenerational daycare program or a daycare program without an intergenerational curriculum. The Children's Attitudes Toward the Elderly (CATE) and a measure of perceived ability to participate in activities (Activity Scale) were used to examine the influence of an intergenerational daycare program on preschool children's attitudes. Program-related differences in attitudes about aging or the elderly were expected, but, overall, the two groups were very similar. In general, children rated older adults less positively than they did younger adults, and they believed that older adults could participate in fewer activities than children could. Longitudinal studies of intergenerational programs, especially programs with an aging education curriculum, are needed to further illuminate the effects of intergenerational contact on children's attitudes.     

DISPOSITIONS IN EDUCATION: NONENTITIES WORTH TALKING ABOUT

The concept of dispositions has commanded considerable attention in both philosophy and education. In this essay, Laurance Splitter draws on philosophy to take a fresh look at dispositions in education, specifically teacher education. Bypassing the pitfalls of both subjectivity and crude behaviorism, he proposes a conceptual framework in which dispositions figure as drivers or triggers of our intentional behavior, one that gives prominence to language in general and to dialogue in particular. Splitter draws on an emerging school of thought that treats classrooms as inquiring communities to argue that students at all levels—including teacher education—should engage in dialogue about what does or does not, and should or should not, move them to behave in certain ways. Finally, Splitter offers a way through the sociopolitical battleground on which the topic of dispositions in teacher education has recently found itself.     

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.     

SPECIAL ISSUE: AGING EDUCATION: PREPARING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY INTRODUCTION

Board and care owners and administrators must find new and innovative ways to meet the training needs of those on their staffs. The authors investigated computer-based instruction as a way to teach injury prevention techniques to these care providers. A computer-based (CB) training program was used that had been adapted from a print-based/instructor-led (IL) program. This article discusses the effectiveness of the CB training as compared to the effectiveness of the traditional IL format. The CB and IL versions of a prevention training program were presented to board and care staff during five sessions. The 78 participants were randomly assigned to either the CB or IL groups. Both the CB and IL groups significantly increased their knowledge scores from pretest to posttest. The CB participants reported that they enjoyed the training and had no difficulty using the computers, even though some of them had never used a computer previously for any activity. Computer-based training can be an effective alternative training technique for this population.     

MEDICAL EDUCATION IN GERIATRICS: THE LASTING IMPACT OF THE AGING GAME

In an effort to sensitize medical students to the problems of the frail elderly, a simulation experience known as the Aging Game is a required portion of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course for medical students at Duke University. The immediate positive effect of the Aging Game has been documented (Journal of the American Medical Association, 262, 1507‐1509), but its long‐term impact has not been established. To obtain follow‐up, a brief 10‐item questionnaire was mailed to all medical students. Both objective and subjective data were collected to ascertain the impact of the Aging Game over time (class years two through four), and objective responses were analyzed by the Mantel‐Haenszel chi‐square test of general association. The lasting effect of the intervention was confirmed over the 2‐year follow‐up period. The experiential nature of the intervention and the resultant increase in empathy for the frail elder explain the success of the Aging Game.     

LIFELONG EDUCATION,LIFELONG NEEDS: FUTURE ROLES IN AN AGING SOCIETY

This article proceeds from the assumption that the aging of American society has consequences for the life roles of midlife and older persons. Seven points are developed in support of the assumption. They are as follows: dynamics and demographics of an aging population; education, a critical component of life in the future; a model of education for older adults; new roles for an aging society; literacy for older persons; older persons' activities in pursuit of lifelong education; and a view of the future that includes lifelong education for lifelong needs. The final section offers some speculations about what lifelong education will be like in 2010.     

关于高校教育统计中几个问题的思考

教育统计作为国家教育管理活动和重要工具，它的准确、及时、完整与否，直接关系到国家教育政策的制定和教育管理的效果，本文对高校教育统计中存在的统计数据质量、统计指标设置、统计人员素质、统计系统人员素质、统计系统网络等问题进行了全方位的分析、探讨，并提出相应的对策。