The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative teaching method in which American undergraduate students were asked to write haiku-a Japanese poetry form-about the lives of nursing home residents. Drawing on both their own experiences and May Sarton's novel "As We Are Now", class members created poems about institutionalization that…

Introductory gerontology courses have the potential to enhance student appreciation of aging issues. The effectiveness of such courses for informing views about individual aging is little studied. This study, using a quasi-experimental design, examines the impact of participation in an introductory course in aging on 158 undergraduate students in…

This cross-sectional study assessed undergraduate attitudes toward older adults and attitude endurance 3 to 18 months after aging coursework. Survey respondents included 349 students who took an aging elective and 430 comparison students. Aging-elective students indicated more positive attitudes than comparison students. Attitudes did not vary…

Involving undergraduate students in cognitive aging research requires extra efforts not associated with graduate assistants. However, if the researcher acknowledges the limited experience of undergraduates in structuring their participation, the rewards are copious for the students and researcher alike. This paper describes undergraduate student…

Imagining what one will be like as an older adult can be a difficult task at mid life, let alone during young adulthood. Yet, pondering senescence has positive benefits for young adults with respect to their future physical, financial and social well being. This article describes an exercise used with more than 300 introductory-level gerontology…

A National Institute on Aging-funded pilot project to study advice-giving by older adult mothers to their middle-aged daughters was undertaken in a medium-sized teaching-intensive university. The student body and community are highly diverse, and many undergraduates are first-generation college students. In this context, undergraduate psychology…

This study assesses undergraduate knowledge of aging, distinguishing between types of deficits (ignorance vs. misinformation) and content areas as delineated by a biopsychosocial framework. Knowledge is examined as an outcome of taking an aging elective, while accounting for course rating and knowledge retention. A diverse body of UCLA…

Examines the use of life histories as a method for explaining successful aging patterns. Describes a life-history research project in which undergraduates personalize material learned in social gerontology courses, integrating the life experience and theories. Sensitizes students to the impact of social forces on successful aging. Argues this…