COURSES OF STUDY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Poetry is a bridge across diverse realities; it bridges the expressible and inexpressible, the present and future. Poetry is also a powerful force in human life; it reveals, nourishes, binds, critiques, empowers, constructs, and confronts. From such movements come visions for educational action, both actual and metaphoric. These include: dancing, meditating, singing, chanting, improvising, and drumming.     

EVALUATION OF A MEDICINE INFORMATION TRAINING PROGRAM FOR OLDER PEOPLE

This article describes a medicine information training project initiated through concerns of older people in Australia about the inappropriate use of medicines and adverse consequences on their health. The training program uses experiential and adult learning strategies to train older people to act as advocates and peer role models to inform their peers on the wise use of medicines. The process evaluation conducted established the high quality of the training program's content, staff, documentation, and other resources. However, feedback from graduates indicated the difficulties experienced by older learners when the training is too concentrated. The wide reach of the program, as assessed through the extensive recorded activities of the program's graduates in the community, was positive. The immediate impact evaluation on those completing initial training identified an increase in self‐reported self‐esteem, whereas the intermediate evaluation on experienced graduates showed that growth in personal development had been sustained several years post‐graduation. None regretted volunteering to be trained and all reported deriving great satisfaction from assisting their peers. They would recommend the training to others, but only if they are willing to listen and invest the time needed during and after training. Relatively high rates of attrition due to death, ill‐health, and family commitments were recorded and implications noted. This project successfully mounted a community‐based program to train older people to act as peer educators, with noticeable benefits to program participants. The procedures used, and the insights obtained through participants’ feedback, have relevance for planning other training programs for older learners.     

YOUNG PEOPLE,CULTURE, AND SPIRITUALITY: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR MINISTRY

Abstract This article brings together some of the literature and research on young people and spirituality from Australia and elsewhere. Using Harris s (1998:109) seven-component approach to defining spirituality, the literature and research about young people and spirituality are grouped and described as such: personalcommunal; concerned with justice and with the nonhuman universe; relating to age as well as the Age; concerned with experiences and the rituals that emerge from them; and containing new and refined understandings of the sacred. Within these categories, this article describes certain characteristics of the spirituality of the young, particularly in the Australian context. Some of the implications of these characteristics for those who work with the young in ministry and religious education are then drawn out.     

OVERCOMING LEARNED HELPLESSNESS IN ELDERLY CLIENTS: SKILLS TRAINING FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS

The concept of learned helplessness has been used to explain many of the depression‐like symptoms found in elderly clients. Persons experiencing learned helplessness perceive events to be beyond their personal control, and learn that it is useless to respond. This syndrome adversely affects cognitive functioning, affect, motivation, and self‐esteem, and these persons present particularly difficult problems for the helping professional. This article relates the theory of learned helplessness to the losses of aging, and describes a brief experiential training program for service providers. The training teaches interpersonal skills useful in working with the depressed elderly. By allowing older persons to have impact within the counseling interaction itself, the process of restoring perceived control and reducing helplessness is initiated.     

论青年教师的培养及发展策略

青年教师的发展要经过四个阶段:适应阶段、定型阶段、突破阶段、成熟阶段.而对青年教师的培养,则需组织培养和自我发展相结合.     

SELF‐ACTUALIZATION IN GIFTED AND AGGRESSIVE YOUNG PEOPLE

A total of 80 students aged seventeen and eighteen (40 in each group) selected from several secondary schools took part in the study. It was assumed that the intensity of self‐acceptance among gifted young people is positively influenced by intellectual success, as well as by the following personality traits: internal locus of control, average or low level of anxiety, strong sensation seeking. There was a trend towards higher self‐actualization among gifted students (although statistically insignificant), while self‐actualizing students had an internal locus of control and a need for stimulation and varied experience. The assumption that lower anxiety and higher self‐acceptance are characteristic of young people with higher self‐actualization was not confirmed, which suggests that there is a need to intensify parents' and teachers' support for students coping with difficulties.