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ENHANCINGUNDERGRADUATEEDUCATION IN PSYCHOLOGYOF AGING THROUGHFACULTY DEVELOPMENTChandra M. Mehrotra aa Department of Psychology , The College of St.Scholastica , Duluth Minnesota, USAPublished online: 09 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Chandra M. Mehrotra (1996) ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATEEDUCATION IN PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING THROUGH FACULTY DEVELOPMENT,Educational Gerontology, 22:1, 1-7, DOI: 10.1080/0360127960220102

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ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATIONIN PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING THROUGHFACULTY DEVELOPMENT

Chandra M. MehrotraDepartment of Psychology, The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth,

Minnesota, USA

A faculty enhancement program was developed to enable psychology instructorsincorporate up-to-date content on aging into their courses. With support from theNational Science Foundation, I conducted a 2-week institute for 22 teachers from2- and 4-year colleges, provided them with consultation during and after the in-stitute, maintained contact with them through reunions and newsletters, and or-ganized a follow-up institute to allow them to share their new efforts. Evaluationbefore and after the initial institute indicated that the institute had strengthenedparticipants' disciplinary expertise and fostered positive attitudes toward aging. Inaddition, evaluation after the follow-up institute indicated that a large number ofparticipants were reading much more about aging than they had before the initialinstitute and had begun to incorporate their new knowledge and skills into thecourses they taught. Similar programs may be developed for gerontology facultyfrom other disciplines.

In view of the continued increase in the older population and therapid advances in knowledge related to the psychology of aging, it iscritical that psychology faculty in 2- and 4-year colleges keep abreast ofcurrent gerontological developments and include them in their curric-ulum. However, heavy teaching loads in a variety of subject matterareas, work on department and collegewide committees, and advisingof both traditional and nontraditional students leave them with littletime to incorporate up-to-date content into their courses. This is par-ticularly true for faculty members who teach at community colleges

Support for the program and for preparation of this article was provided by theNational Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education. I thank MargaretGatz for her assistance in conceptualizing the evaluation design and for encouragementthat led to the preparation of this article. An earlier version of this article was presentedat the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC,August 1992.

Address correspondence to Chandra M. Mehrotra, The College of St. Scholastica,1200 Kenwood Avenue, Duluth, MN 55811-4199, USA.

Educational Gerontology, 22:1-7, 1996 1Copyright © 1996 Taylor & Francis

0360-1277/96 $10.00 + .00

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2 C. M. MEHROTRA

and at small 4-year colleges, where teaching and advising responsibil-ities tend to be greater.

To address these needs of psychology faculty, I developed a compre-hensive faculty enhancement program with support from the NationalScience Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education. In thisarticle, I describe the program and its impact on the participants.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

The primary purpose of the program was to enhance the quality ofundergraduate education by providing the 22 participants with knowl-edge of recent developments in various aspects of aging and sharingwith them effective methods of presenting this knowledge to their un-dergraduate students. Specific objectives were to (a) strengthen theparticipants' disciplinary expertise in the psychology of aging, (b) en-hance the participants' skills in presenting up-to-date materials inaging to their undergraduate students, and (c) give the participantsopportunities to interact with experts in the field and colleagues fromother institutions.

PROGRAM DESIGN

The program consisted of three elements: (a) a 2-week institute at TheCollege of St. Scholastica in summer 1989, attended by 22 teachersfrom 2- and 4-year colleges; (b) consultation and reunion during the1989-90 academic year; and (c) a follow-up institute in summer 1991.

CONTENT AND FORMAT

Topics covered at the initial institute included life span developmentalpsychology, sensation and perception, cognitive processes, the environ-ment and aging, assessment of older adults, the neuropsychology ofaging, evaluation research, personality development, and work andretirement. Distinguished visiting professors were invited to give pre-sentations in their areas of specialization. These sessions covered sub-stantive content and instructional strategies for presenting the mate-rial to undergraduates.

Each of the days in the initial institute followed a similar format.The daily schedule consisted of two 21/2-hr class sessions, with freetime between them for lunch and independent study. Two class ses-sions were devoted to each of the aforementioned topics. Instructionalapproaches used in the sessions included lecture or case presentationto the whole group, structured small-group tasks or focused discus-

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ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION 3

sions, simulations, and question-and-answer sessions. Because all ofthe participants and visiting professors stayed on campus, additionalopportunities were available for interaction among the participantsand between the participants and the institute staff. In addition, theparticipants visited three different facilities for older adults: a nursinghome located on the campus, a board and lodging facility along with asenior center, and a home for older adults with Alzheimer's disease.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

A number of follow-up activities were conducted from 1989 to 1991 tomaintain contact with the participants, provide them with continuingsupport in their new efforts, cover additional topics suggested by theparticipants, and stimulate collaboration among them. Such follow-upactivities have been found to contribute significantly to the effective-ness of faculty renewal programs (Menges, 1985). Brief descriptions ofthese activities follow.

Reunion. I organized a breakfast reunion at the 1989 scientificmeeting of the Gerontological Society of America. Five of the visitingprofessors and 12 of the institute participants attended this reunion.The participants gave progress reports on their development of newcourses and their incorporation of material on aging into existingcourses. The professors described their current research.

Newsletters. Two newsletters were prepared during the 1989—90academic year: one on textbooks and the other on teaching older adults.Another newsletter was prepared in the 1990-91 academic year toprovide participants with information on audiovisual materials usefulin teaching undergraduate courses. All of these newsletters were wellreceived by the participants.

Consultation. The institute director and the visiting professorshave continued to provide consultation and other support to the par-ticipants. For example, one of the visiting professors served as a guestlecturer in classes taught by two of the participants; the director vis-ited a participant at her home institution, reviewed her course mate-rials, and suggested new assessment tools for use by her students; andthe director and the institute faculty assisted two participants in ob-taining support for their sabbatical leaves, each of which involved ag-ing-related projects.

Follow-Up Institute. A survey was conducted in fall 1990 to deter-mine the participants' interest in a weeklong follow-up institute. Onthe basis of the findings of this survey, a follow-up institute was orga-nized in summer 1991. Eighteen of the original participants attendedthis institute. In addition to learning about two new topics (mental

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health and cross-cultural aspects of aging), the participants gave pre-sentations on how they had used the knowledge and skills they hadgained from the 1989 institute.

EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM

Evaluation of the program entailed monitoring all of the activities,collecting data on the participants' knowledge and attitudes before andafter the 1989 institute, and administering evaluation questionnairesat the end of each institute. The program director attended all sessions.This monitoring was done to determine whether the material was pre-sented at an appropriate level, whether active learning by the partic-ipants was encouraged, and whether there was a good match betweenwhat was proposed and what was presented. The effectiveness of theprogram was assessed by examining the participants' knowledge, at-titudes, and behaviors.

Participants' Knowledge

I assessed the participants' knowledge before and after the initial in-stitute by administering (a) a test on the specific material taught at theinstitute, developed with the assistance of the institute faculty; (b) theMental Health and Aging Test (Pruchno & Smyer, 1983), which as-sesses factual knowledge in the area of mental health and aging; and(c) the Facts on Aging Quiz (Palmore, 1977), which includes items onpsychological capacities, affective states, physical conditions, behav-ioral competencies, social situations, and demographic characteristics.

Participants' Attitudes

Participants' attitudes were assessed before and after the initial insti-tute by administering (a) the Attitude Toward Old People Scale(Kogan, 1961), which assesses attitudes toward old people with respectto norms and individual differences, stereotypes of older people, andmisconceptions about older people; (b) the Functionalistic Ethic As-sessment Questionnaire (Sherman, 1981), which assesses the degree towhich human worth is seen as hinging on productivity; and (c) theOpinions About People scale (OAP; Ontario Welfare Council, 1971),which assesses attitudes toward and perceptions of age and aging andattitudes toward senescence of practitioners and the general public.The following OAP subscales were used: Anxiety about Aging, Denialof the Effects of Aging, Public Responsibility for the Elderly, Realistic

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ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION 5

Toughness with Respect To Aging, Social Distance from Older Adults,and Unfair Stereotypes of Older Adults.

Participants' Behaviors

Changes in participants' behaviors were assessed by asking questionsabout their intentions to teach courses on aging. These questions wereincluded in the Institute Evaluation Form completed by all partici-pants at the end of the 1989 institute. On the form they also rateddifferent aspects of the institute and reported the extent to which ithad facilitated their learning new facts, gaining new enthusiasm toinclude aging in the curriculum, getting to know distinguished profes-sionals in the field of aging, and interacting with colleagues from otherschools. Another evaluation form, administered after the follow-up in-stitute in summer 1991, asked the participants to report how they hadused their newly acquired knowledge and skills in strengthening theirundergraduate courses.

RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION

Knowledge

The participants' scores on the knowledge test increased significantlyafter the initial institute, from a pre-test mean of 29.45 to a post-testmean of 36.61, £(21) = 6.97, p < .001. However, there were no signifi-cant differences between their pre- and post-test scores on the MentalHealth and Aging Test and the Facts on Aging Quiz.

Attitudes

Statistically significant changes were found on three of the eight mea-sures of attitudes that were administered before and after the initialinstitute. On the Functionalistic Ethic Assessment Questionnaire,there was a statistically significant decrease in endorsing functional-istic values from a pre-test mean of 10.77 to a post-test mean of 9.18,£(21) = 2.94, p < .01. On the OAP Denial of the Effects of Aging sub-scale, the participants showed a statistically significant increase, froma pre-test mean of 13.22 to a post-test mean of 15.00, t(21) = 2.41, p <.05. Finally, on the OAP subscale Unfair Stereotypes of Older Adults,the participants' mean score increased significantly from 19.59 to23.36, £(21) = 2.37, p < .05. The higher post-test scores obtained by the

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participants on these two scales may represent a casting off of negativestereotypes about older adults.

Behaviors

The institute received an overall rating of 3.77 on a 4-point scale. Theparticipants indicated that they had acquired new knowledge forstrengthening their teaching, research, and service efforts related toaging. On the follow-up evaluation administered in July 1991, partic-ipants reported that as a result of attending the institute, they haddeveloped a stronger sense of the value of incorporating aging contentinto their curriculum, were reading much more about aging than theyhad before the institute, had incorporated new materials into theircourses, and had become much more involved in aging-related activi-ties on their campus. A large number of the participants said that theyhad maintained contact with distinguished visiting professors andwith colleagues from other schools. About half of the respondents re-ported that they had begun subscribing to gerontological journals andhad initiated research on aging-related topics.

Responses on the follow-up evaluation also indicated that the insti-tute had stimulated participants to undertake aging-related teachingand research activities that they would not have initiated otherwise.For example, a tenured professor took a sabbatical leave and visitedSweden, the Netherlands, and Germany to meet with professors ofgerontology at institutions of higher education, to visit day care andother community facilities for older adults, and to tour housing de-signed especially for senior citizens. An assistant professor conducteda series of workshops for service providers from rural nursing homesand other facilities for older adults. An associate professor and hisstudents conducted research on the health problems of 466 olderwomen in rural counties of North Dakota. Three of the participantsdeveloped a proposal for conducting a multisite research study of olderwomen representing three ethnic groups.

DISCUSSION

The participants' expectations for the institute were met, and theirsatisfaction with the program was high. As a result of attending theinstitute, they showed significant gains on the knowledge tests I de-signed for this program. The lack of significant change on the MentalHealth and Aging Test and the Facts on Aging Quiz may, to someextent, have been due to the high scores the participants had obtainedon the pre-tests. The statistically significant results on two of the at-

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titude measures indicated (a) a decrease in endorsing functionalisticvalues and (b) an increase in casting off negative stereotypes aboutolder adults. The lack of significant changes on other measures ofattitude may be a reflection of the institute's emphasis on enhancingthe participants' knowledge base, rather than changing their attitudestoward older people. Indeed, a large number of participants reportedafter the follow-up institute that they were reading much more aboutaging than they had before and had begun to incorporate their newknowledge into the courses they taught. Evaluation results indicatedthat the program made a difference in undergraduate instruction interms of the content of courses and the way participants managed theteaching—learning process. Similar programs may be developed for ger-ontology faculty from other disciplines.

REFERENCES

Kogan, N. (1961). Attitudes toward old people: The development of a scale andan examination of correlates. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,62, 44-54.

Menges, R. (1985, April). The Stanford program for faculty renewal: Evalua-tion of workshops and reunions. Paper presented at the annual meeting ofthe American Educational Research Association, Chicago.

Ontario Welfare Council, Section on Aging. (1971, January). Opinions AboutPeople, Form A: Guidelines and manual (for an instrument dealing withattitudes toward aging and the aged for use in educational and trainingprograms in the field of aging). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Author.

Palmore, E. (1977). Facts on aging: A short quiz. The Gerontologist, 17, 315-320.

Pruchno, R., & Smyer, M. (1983). Mental health problems and aging: A shortquiz. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 17, 123-140.

Sherman, E. (1981). Counseling the aging: An integrative approach. New York:Free Press.

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