There is a gap in our knowledge of aging with autism. The present study examined the applicability of the popular gerontology concept of "aging well" to autistic adults. Using survey data, a model of "aging well" was operationalised and applied to 92 autistic adults and 60 controls. A very small proportion (3.3%) of autistic…

Many critical educational philosophies assume that learners are naïve and unable to critically read their social reality. Critical educational gerontology (CEG) aims to emancipate learners from oppression, to which they are oblivious. This strand of older adult education charges teachers with the task of raising learners' naïve consciousness, by…

Interprofessional collaborations in the United States, have emerged as a means to improve health care outcomes and reduce costs. Such collaborations may be especially beneficial in the field of gerontology, given widespread chronic conditions and high health care utilization rates among this population. Currently, there is a shortage of graduates…

The lack of adequate numbers of people working with older adults in an aging society implies the potential of attracting students from other disciplines to the field. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 52 Chinese psychology students who took a gerontological psychology course designed to prepare them for aging-related careers. As…

This study was designed to investigate the impacts of self-arranged nursing home observation sessions on healthcare students' attitudes toward older adults. Sixty-seven undergraduate students enrolled in a gerontology course were required to complete an attitudes survey at the beginning and the end of the semester. In addition, they conducted 3…

The Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida College of Medicine has established online education programs to provide healthcare professionals with advanced training in the field of gerontology to establish proficiency in providing quality care to older individuals. A major barrier to creating our online education…

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC.…

Effective health care with older adults requires that clinicians and practitioners are knowledgeable about aging issues and have the skills to work within an interdisciplinary team context. This article describes a Senior Mentoring Program that paired clinical students in medicine, nursing, and a physician assistant program with community-dwelling…

Policy on educational gerontology seems a relatively recent subfield in most countries' social policies. The concept of education for older adults did not appear in Taiwan's political discourse until 1980. The purposes of this paper are to provide an overall introduction to the development of educational gerontology policies and practices in…

This article discusses the results of a school of social work survey assessing the geriatric training needs of social workers and other professionals in aging and the need for a gerontology practitioner's continuing education (CE) certificate program. A total of 391 professionals, the majority of whom were social workers, participated in an online…

Mezirow (1978) applied and used Transformative Learning Theoretical (TLT) processes while studying women who reentered academics during the 1970s. Similar to Mezirow's original 1975 work, we identify "factors that impeded or facilitated" participants' progress to obtain their undergraduate degree during the traditional student…

Turkey is undergoing a demographic transition process in which the proportion of older adult population is rapidly increasing. As a result, the professional interventions toward older people gain more importance. Because the attitudes displayed by social workers toward older people will affect the quality of the services that older people will…

Poetry and gerontology are often not viewed as congenial or likely companions. Yet these two approaches to communication, creativity, and health may have much in common. I would like to present some of my own work, five poems in fact, in light of my personal history and as a teacher/facilitator. My goal here is to reveal ideas and directions that…

The aging of society requires more trained aging specialists. Are higher education institutions prepared? Results of a comparison of gerontology programs in 2000 and 2010 indicate that the number of programs has declined and that higher education is not prepared. To address this challenge, the authors propose that gerontology be professionalized.…

The purpose of this study is to document current practices and understandings about globalization of gerontology education in the United States. Better understanding of aging requires international perspectives in global communities. However, little is known about how globalization of gerontology education is practiced in U.S. graduate-level…