The Gerontologist: Counselor and Coach

Effective communication is the core of every helping relationship. Trained and experienced gerontology counselors bring skillful listening, the gift of reframing, the ability to suspend judgment, experience with confidentiality and ethics, and the ability to seek solutions and think of possibilities to the evolving field of life coach. Therefore, whether the older client is seeking psychological counseling or a personal evolution and ways to live their life more fully, the gerontologist is the most suitable professional to address their concerns. If practitioners are to meet the rapidly increasing needs of Baby Boomers, academic programs need to train them to fill the role of both counselor and coach. Clients will make the determination of who is the best fit for their current concern.     

Writing learning journals: Instructional support to overcome learning-strategy deficits

Although writing learning journals is a powerful learning tool, instructional support is needed to overcome deficits in the use of self-regulated learning strategies. In a 2 × 2 experimental design with high-school students (N = 70), we analysed the effects of two modes of instruction (namely, informed prompting and learning-journal example) along with prompts. Informed prompting that provided background information on the prompted strategies enhanced learning in the training and transfer session. A learning-journal example that modelled the application of the strategies primarily fostered the strategy used in the training session and learning in the transfer session. Theoretically, the results provide support for the self-regulation view of writing-to-learn.