Infusing gerontology throughout the BSW curriculum

How can social work educators ensure that all of their BSW students have the savvy and "know-how" to deal with the needs of our growing aging population? The development of broad-based, innovative gerontological learning opportunities in a BSW program in a small liberal arts and sciences college is presented in this article. Strategies for actively involving community representatives in curriculum changes and participatory learning experiences with students are shared. Ways to incorporate various disciplines in the BSW education are explored in addition to developing intergenerational projects, direct involvement of older persons in the educational process, and ways to unite field practice with theory.     

Enhancing Student Gerocompetencies: Evaluation of an Intergenerational Service Learning Course

This article describes the development and evaluation of an intergenerational service-learning course designed to promote social work gerocompetencies. Service-learning opportunities were structured into the course, including an optional evidence-based falls prevention program, for older adults, entitled A Matter of Balance (MOB). Significant differences between pre- and posttest scores on the Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale (GSWCS) were noted for students in the service learning course (n = 13). Once MOB was introduced as an independent variable, the MOB participants scored the highest mean posttest scores for 2 GSWCS domains: values, ethics, and theoretical perspectives; and intervention. The benefits of utilizing social work gerocompetencies to guide course objectives, content, and student outcomes are discussed.     

Building Citizenship: How Student Voice in Service-Learning Develops Civic Values

Objective . Though many decry the decline in political participation and interest, few academic studies present a clear approach to help reverse these trends. This paper examines the impact of service-learning programs on students' self-concept, political engagement, and attitudes toward out-groups. Methods . The data come from a pre and post survey given to more than 200 high school students in 10 different schools. We use Huber regression to assess the impact of student voice in the service-learning project on six dependent variables. Results . We show that if students are involved in service-learning projects in which they have a high degree of voice and ownership, their self-concept and political engagement will improve, and they become more tolerant toward out-groups. Conclusion . In short, having a voice in service-learning programs builds citizenship.     

Designing Service–Learning to Empower Students and Community: Jackson Elementary Builds a Nature Study Center

We propose an approach to service–learning in which projects are designed so as to empower undergraduate students and community members. When student service scholars take away control from citizens, they can undermine citizens' perceptions of competency; when faculty reduce students' choice and responsibility, they can undermine students' efficacy and desire to learn. We propose four guidelines for optimizing student and citizen experiences: (1) service should serve both the community and the students; (2) service should empower; (3) service should be contextual; and (4) service projects should endure. We elaborate this philosophy and illustrate it with a project in which nine university students and 30 fifth–graders built a science and nature study center for a K–6 elementary school.     

社会工作实务课程服务学习教学模式探索——以《老年社会工作》服务学习项目为例

我国高校社会工作实务课程的教学时常面临教学与实践分离的困境。笔者在《老年社会工作》课程教学中引入服务学习的理念和方法,将知识学习与社会服务相结合,以期在服务社会的过程中强化学生的专业理念,激发学生的学习动力,提高学生对理论、方法和技能的运用能力,促进学生对课堂知识的内化和反思,探索适合我国文化情景及社会工作实践的实务课程教学模式。     

Taking the class to the community with service-learning: gerontological macro social work practice

In an effort to infuse gerontological content throughout a BSW curriculum, the College of Mount St. Joseph developed community partnerships with agencies that serve older adults. These partnerships led to specific "out-of-class" assignments in a macro social work practice class using a service-learning approach. The development and implementation of those assignments in the agency settings are described using Polvika's Conceptual Model for Community Interagency Collaboration. The successful outcomes are described in terms of the community partnership, services and benefits provided, and the degree of satisfaction by the agencies, students, and faculty with this pedagogical method.     

The Integration of Pro-Active Aging Education into Existing Educational Curricula

Summary

Community service-learning in schools, and increased awareness of the interdependence of generations, has heightened interest in intergenerational programming. While there is agreement that service-learning results in substantial educational opportunities, too often the result is training, or reflection, but not proactive aging education. Students, therefore, have little sustainable understanding of the older adults with whom they are interacting. This paper addresses what aging education should include, why it is not consistently being taught, and how to integrate aging education into already existing curricula and age-appropriate skill development.     

Promoting Intergenerational Programs

Emphasizing the vital roles that both the youth and elderly play in determining the impact of intergenerational experiences as well as encouraging the identificationof strengths and assets of both the youth and elderly are two conditions that will further maximize the success of intergenerational programs. Triads with Youths, Elderly, and Students (Tri-YES), an intergenerational project at Hampton University is presented as a case example of a project that incorporates these two conditions. Based on staff observations and participants' evaluations, several recommendations to assist other program staff to develop mutually beneficial intergenerational projects are cited.     

Increasing aging and advocacy competency: the intergenerational advocacy pilot project

The Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) Strengthening Aging and Gerontology Education for Social Work (SAGE-SW) project, funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation partnered with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) to develop an Intergenerational Policy and Advocacy Project (IAP). This curriculum pilot project, based on a community organization model, was conducted with 13 baccalaureate social work (BSW) and master's social work (MSW) programs across the country and 122 students. The project was one method to pursue CSWE SAGE-SW's efforts to infuse aging content into social work foundation curricula, to support intergenerational teaching, to strengthen social work advocacy skills, and to provide social work students with positive experiences working with older adults. Pilot sites were asked to carry out the project as part of an existing course foundation or field practicum course. Project activities included collaboration with a variety of community agencies, holding issues or "town hall" forums in order to educate community members about critical policy issues affecting older adults; making contacts and establishing relationships with local, state and/or federal legislators; and conducting assessments of the service needs of older adults in the students' communities. Questionnaires, feedback, pre-post evaluations as well as brief accounts of each project are presented. Participants considered the IAP to be a successful project in terms of the objectives of increasing awareness and competency among social work students of aging issues and of promoting intergenerational linkages between older people and social work students.     

服务学习初探

服务学习是一种学习方法,它联系学校和社区,促进合作,积极地回应社区的挑战和机遇。本文主要阐述了服务学习在社会工作课程中的运用和探索。中国社会工作职业化才刚刚起步,在这个社会工作“有需求没有市场,有能力没有舞台”的年代,服务学习在社会工作教育界的引入对社会工作的发展有着重要的意义。     

Promoting leadership skills in field education:a university-community partnership to bring macro and micro together in gerontological field placements

Social workers are being called upon to utilize a wide range of skills in practice including not only skills of working directly with clients, but also skills related to practice in organizations such as program management, inter-organizational cooperation, research and evaluation. This article describes an innovative geriatric field education program that prepares social workers with leadership skills in both direct service and management, and engages community agencies as both sites for student learning and as beneficiaries of their professional development projects. Case examples are provided and benefits and challenges to the model are discussed.     

Personal Identity and Civic Responsibility: "Rising to the Occasion" Narratives and Generativity in Community Action Student Interns

Twenty–two students in a community action certificate program supplied "rising to the occasion" narratives during summer–long internships. They also filled out measures of generativity. Twenty–one students in an international studies certificate program that also included a summer internship served as a comparison group. Both groups reported equal personal growth from rising to the occasion experiences and no differences on measures of optimism, self–esteem or generativity. However, the community action students linked their personal growth experiences to future community service; a regression analysis also revealed that the best predictor of their stress–related growth was their level of generative concern. No comparable links emerged for the comparison group. Implications for cultivating connections between personal identity and civic responsibility through service–learning are discussed.     

Theoretical Support and Other Considerations in Using Simulated Clients to Educate Social Workers

This article builds on literature from many helping disciplines supporting the use of simulated clients (sometimes referred to as standardized patients) in training professional students, explaining why the use of simulated clients is more effective in developing clinical skills as compared with student-to-student role-plays. Psychodynamic and Bowen intergenerational family theory, critical to the development of social work knowledge, is used to support the use of simulated clients to portray clients with challenging and complex lives. Risks and benefits of using simulated clients is discussed, along with recommendations to educational programs regarding ways to effectively use this experiential learning method.     

Typologies of student experiences and constructed meanings of learning in international placements

This article discusses findings from a three-year British Council-funded project into social work student placements in Malaysia. Processes of student learning in unfamiliar cultural contexts were examined in relation to three cohorts of students. Here typologies of experience influencing learning, elicited from student-recorded data, are discussed. Analysis suggests that students undergo a process of liminality, adjustment or resistance to the contexts of community, culture and placements encountered in international settings. Emergent themes are identified as naive acceptance, critical revelation, critical observation, epiphany, critical reactionary, professional rejection and antagonistic response. Implications for international placements are discussed based on the data.     

CDIO理念下的高职《图形图像处理》课程教学模式探索

针对高职《图形图像处理》课程教学中容易存在的问题，探讨将CDIO教学模式引入该课程教学各个环节中，构建“教、学、做”一体化课程体系，建设CDIO学习环境，基于案例组织课堂教学，基于项目实施实践实训教学，强化学生实践能力，建立基于CDIO的评价体系，以达到高效组织课程教学、培养学生工程能力的目的。     

Aging services or services to the aging?focus of a university-community curriculum development partnership to increase awareness of aging issues in social work practice

This paper describes a partnership between social work faculty and community practitioners to develop gerontological curricula to increase awareness of aging issues among social work students. We describe steps taken to identify learning needs of students by examining gaps in the core curriculum and surveying community-based agencies that serve older persons who face a variety of problems. We also describe a unique field education assignment designed to increase awareness of how well community service agencies meet the needs of older clients and provide quantitative and qualitative data on students' overall learning experiences. The project highlights the role of community partners in developing relevant curricula for future social work practitioners.     

Experiencing Civil Unrest: Elder Voices on Ferguson

ABSTRACT

Ferguson, Missouri became the center of the nation’s attention when an unarmed African American teenager was killed by a Caucasian police officer. Civic unrest continued for weeks. The aim of this study was to learn how older adults experienced the social unrest. Ten focus groups were conducted with 73 participants. Eight themes were identified. Issues related to safety were most commonly discussed. Participants reported a breakdown in intergenerational communications and expressed a desire for more exchange. Findings are being discussed with relevant organizations to increase the involvement of older adults in on-going community development efforts and to provide opportunities for intergenerational dialogue.     

Campus–Community Partnerships: The Terms of Engagement

The emergence of service–learning in higher education and the renewed emphasis on community involvement presents colleges and universities with opportunities to develop campus–community partnerships for the common good. These partnerships can leverage both campus and community resources to address critical issues in local communities. Campus–community partnerships are a series of interpersonal relationships between (a) campus administrators, faculty, staff, and students and (b) community leaders, agency personnel, and members of communities. The phases of relationships (i.e., initiation, development, maintenance, dissolution) and the dynamics of relationships (i.e., exchanges, equity, distribution of power) are explored to provide service–learning instructors and campus personnel with a clearer understanding of how to develop healthy campus–community partnerships.