From Pedagogy to Practice: Adventures in Student Engagement

In each class we teach as gerontological educators, we confront the conveyance of our discipline’s tenants to our students. Regardless of whether our students are traditional/non-traditional, or undergraduate/graduate, we rely on creative pedagogical strategies and the engagement of each student within the classroom, as well as to provide for them external meaningful experiences or active participatory activities, specifically with older adults. Additionally, our pedagogical practices must enhance our students’ knowledge of the field of aging/gerontology, as well as prepare them for working with an older population often diverse in ethnicity, race, and religion. But there must always be a method to our madness! Previous Gerontology & Geriatrics Education articles indicate the difficulty attracting students to our field (Wesley, 2005; Gross & Eshbaugh, 2011; Eshbaugh, Gross, Hillebrand, Davie, & Henninger, 2013), but also instruct us how to increase students’ interest through education and exposure to older adults (Snyder, 2005; Hantman, Oz, Gutman, & Criden, 2013).

Two articles within this edition of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education focus on service learning. Obhi and Woodhead make a case for integration of service learning into class/curriculum content. Instead of focusing on frequency of contact or more exposure to older adults, they look toward a determination of the students’ relationship quality with older relatives and focus on intentions in working with an older population. Augustin and Freshman approached service-learning experiences from a different angle, incorporating a discussion of some of the difficulties in participating in service learning within the community. Their article exposes some of the challenges for the instructor concerning logistics, controlling preceptors, and uncooperative senior adults, as well as a realization of the impact of the service learning on the recipients. For those who have not incorporated service learning into their class/curriculum, these two articles contribute heavily to prior knowledge and one would be wise to read them before embarking on a service-learning component. Additionally, each article includes numerous “must reads” within service learning research.

The promotion of interprofessional learning of undergraduate/graduate students through a university-community partnership via a Senior Wellness Fair (SWF) is the focus of Diwan, Perdue, Lee, and Grossman’s article. The interdisciplinary focus included students from nursing, nutrition, social work, occupational therapy, psychology, kinesiology, and health science/public health. Following along with the theme of “interest in working with older adults,” the researchers found the SWF “sparked or solidified” the students’ interest in working with seniors, and the students comprehended their need for multidisciplinary professional collaboration.

Focusing on reflective practice, Brand, Miller, Saunders, Dugmore, and Etherton-Beer bring photo-elicitation reflective learning to medical and nursing students. The pilot project’s findings indicate the students’ attitudes towards older adults were positive. Additionally, the photo-elicitation reflective prompts created a safe learning/reflective space for the students and allowed for a deeper understanding of older adults.

Silver, Warrick, and Cyr assess undergraduate students’ expectations on mental health and aging, using a pre-post test survey with the ERA-12 (Expectations Regarding Aging) survey and word association task. Positing a gerontology course as the intervention, findings determined the possibility of positively altering students’ expectations of older adults’ mental health/aging using the course. For gerontology and geriatrics educators, this research highlights the changes that can and often do occur within our courses.

One of the larger questions within gerontology is how should we recruit students to work with older adults, but we also ask, “who is likely to commit to a career with older adults.” Gendron, Welleford, Pelco, and Myers contribute to our knowledge with an answer of formal gerontological education, reinforcing the fact that those with any formal level of education in gerontology have a higher level of career commitment.

Each article within this issue highlights the importance of gerontological knowledge and education to continue the work outside of academe in gerontology and geriatrics. While we may be mired in instructional strategies and methods, it is the outcome on which we need to focus. Our work within the classroom is of utmost importance to our field and to the diverse and wonderful population of older adults, whose lives are made better through our teachings.