Intergenerational service-learning has become an important practice in gerontology and geriatrics education. Although numerous benefits of service-learning have been documented, greater attention to critical reflection, a key component for harvesting the learning in service-learning, is needed to increase our understanding of what students really…

Gerontologists face a unique set of obstacles in attracting newcomers to the field. Despite demographic trends favorable to a wide range of employment opportunities and job security, aging is rarely top of mind for many students when it comes to career choices. For most gerontologists, aging is our passion. How do we share that passion with others…

Medical schools must consider innovative ways to ensure that graduates are prepared to care for the aging population. One way is to offer a geriatrics clerkship as an option for the fulfillment of a medical school's internal medicine rotation requirement. The authors' purpose was to evaluate the geriatrics clerkship's impact on internal medicine…

The virtual patient is a case-based computer program that combines textual information with multimedia elements such as audio, graphics, and animation. It is increasingly being utilized as a teaching modality by medical educators in various fields of instruction. The inherent complexity of older patients and the shortage of geriatrics educators…

This study assesses how effective classroom sessions are at teaching geriatric competencies to medical students. At Stony Brook Medical School, most geriatric competencies are taught in the Ambulatory Care Clerkship during small-group educational sessions. Clinical exposure to reinforce these specialized skills varies with preceptor assignment. A…

Medical graduates require positive attitudes toward older people with cognitive impairment, in addition to knowledge and skills in the diagnosis and management of dementia. The Student Training Project in Dementia (STriDE) project was conducted to ensure that these needs are met through curricula in Western Australian medical schools. Two medical…

The DWR Department of Geriatric Medicine at OUHSC and the OKC VA Medical Center began a mandatory third-year geriatric medicine clerkship in 2003. As part of the didactic sessions, the Department created a longitudinal Case-Based Learning (CBL) experience. The purpose of this paper is to describe the CBL experience, report student satisfaction…

Student- or learner-centered teaching has an historical context--it is old and new. This article traces the path that has brought us full circle to once again concentrating on student learning instead of teacher teaching--from the era of learning being restricted to the wealthy and privileged, to today where learning institutions are inclusive.…

Teaching in higher education increasingly requires greater accountability, the utilization of contemporary learner-focused teaching models, and transparent grading methods for nonstandardized learning products. This article describes learner-centered evaluation and assessment strategies and illustrates how these approaches emphasize learners'…

The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) General Education "Clusters" are innovations in student-centered undergraduate education focused on complex phenomena that require an interdisciplinary perspective. UCLA gerontology and geriatric faculty recognized the opportunity to introduce freshmen to the field of aging through this new…

In 2000, the Senior Mentor Program was implemented as an innovative, instructional method in the University of South Carolina's medical school curriculum designed to enhance and strengthen student training in geriatrics. This study qualitatively analyzed second-year medical students' and senior participants' perceptions of and attitudes towards…