Volume 2, Number 2 - Spring 2007
In This Issue: Competency-Based Education
Competency-Based Education, a future direction for social work education, has always been at the core of the Gero-Ed Center’s mission to prepare gerontologically-competent graduates and is the foundation for all our programs, including our eLearning courses.
Gerontological Social Work Competency-Based Education and Evaluation
Harriet L. Cohen, Texas Christian University
One professor reflects on the importance of Competency-Based Education and how it can transform the profession.
Reflections on the End of the Center’s First Three Years
Nancy R. Hooyman, CSWE Gero-Ed Center Co-PI
As the CSWE Gero-Ed Center comes to the end of our first three years of funding, Nancy Hooyman looks back at where we've been and where we're going.
Three Groups Brought Together for a Successful Forum
The recent Gero-Ed Forum included the annual meetings of the PPP and CDI programs, highlighting the interconnectons of these three groups.
Competency-Based Education Resources
Gero Competencies - Includes list of gero competencies, how to measure them, the history of their development, & much more.
Planned Change Course - Our eLearning course is a guide to understanding and applying Competency-Based Education.
Faculty/Student Opportunities
Gero-Ed Track Submission Deadline Approaches
Submissions to the CSWE APM, which includes the new Gero-Ed Track, are due April 27, 2007.
MAC Project Gero Innovations Grant: Proposals Due Soon
The Gero Innovations Grant RFP is now available online and proposals are due April 16, 2006 by 5:00 PM EDT.
Students – Submit Today for the Anita Rosen Gero Student Poster Awards
Students are encouraged to submit to the APM Gero-Ed Track to be eligible for the Rosen Awards.
Gerontological Social Work Competency-Based Education and Evaluation
By Harriet L. Cohen
Several days ago I had a disgruntled student in my office protesting the grade she had received on an assignment regarding aging. She desperately explained, “But I worked all weekend on this assignment, didn’t go out with my friends, and even stayed up late to finish on time. Doesn’t that make a difference in my grade?” To which I responded, “It is not what you put in, but what comes out” that will help you develop confidence as a social work practitioner.
After the conversation with that student, I found myself reflecting on the organizational and curricular changes that have occurred in gerontological social work education since I made the transition from social work practitioner to educator in 2001. Because of my many years of practice with older adults, I was able to make the most of the opportunities offered through the Hartford Geriatric Enrichment Social Work Program (GeroRich), which introduced me to the concepts of “competency-based education and evaluation” and a “competency-based approach to curriculum development.” We learned that gerontological social work competencies should be clearly defined by stakeholders and embedded within a larger institutional strategic planning process. There should be multiple strategies to assess outcomes (e.g. extent to which the competencies are attained), with performance expectations clearly identified by faculty. Competencies are important in communicating with students what is expected of them and how their performance will be measured. Also, the assessment of students’ progress in meeting competencies can result in instructors’ strategies to improve student learning.
With the dramatic increase in the 65+ population and its increasing racial and ethnic diversity, gerontological social work competencies are critical in communicating with other social workers and health care providers, employers, families and the larger community about what students know and are able to do. The social work profession holds the potential to change and even transform the current fragmented and under-funded health, social service and long-term care aging network to be a culturally-competent, community-oriented, elder-friendly network of programs and services that involves older adults, not just as recipients of service, but as participants in the creation and evaluation of services (Greene & Cohen, 2005; Greene, Cohen, Galambos & Kropf, in press). This challenge requires a well articulated set of competences that identify the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and critical and reflective thinking that will prepare social work students as practitioners, researchers, advocates and policy makers with and for older adults.
Harriet L. Cohen, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Texas Christian University. She has been actively involved in Hartford-funded programs as a former GeroRich Project Director, CDI Mentor, member of the Gero-Ed Center’s National Advisory Board and Hartford Faculty Scholar.
References
Greene, R.R., Cohen, H.L., Galumbos, C., and Kropf, N.P. (In press). Foundation of social work practice in the field of aging: A competency based approach. Washington, DC: NASW Press.
Visit our Web site for more information on the CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s Competencies.
Reflections on the End of the Center’s First Three Years
The accelerated momentum for gerontological social work education, initiated and funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, was highly evident at the February 2007 Gero-Ed Forum, including the CDI and PPP meetings. From my perspective, the level of commitment and energy reflected by the over 270 participants is an indicator that the gero social work movement has reached a new level. For the past eight years of Hartford-funded curriculum development programs, staff associated with SAGE-SW, GeroRich, or the Gero-Ed Center often felt that they needed “to pull” faculty along. What appeared to shift dramatically with the 2007 Forum, however, is the emergence of a critical mass of gero-committed BSW and MSW faculty eager to further “gerontologize” social work education. These faculty are now poised to propel forward gero curricular and organizational changes. I imagine that many of us will be referring back to the 2007 Gero-Ed Forum for years to come as the time when gerontological social work “came fully of age!”
What an energizing way to close the first three years of the Gero-Ed Center. Since 2004, 70 social work programs participated fully in the CDIs, infusing gero competencies into their foundation curriculum. Over 750 faculty attended three Gero-Ed Forums. One hundred three (103) faculty participated in five Gero-Ed Institutes, our one day faculty development workshops on gerontological topics. Nine textbook authors and two editors learned ways to infuse gerontology into their foundation texts. The Gero-Ed Center Web site (www.Gero-EdCenter.org), which has served as our main portal for disseminating gero-related curricular resources, was launched in March 2005 and has since logged over 60,500 visits. Since October 2006, over 75 individuals have registered for the introductory module to our new eLearning course on planned curricular and organizational change. Finally, this eNewsletter, Aging Times, has been sent quarterly to over 3,800 CSWE members and other individuals interested in aging since January 2006.
The Center has also worked to make a lasting impact on the profession. Gains were made in terms of influencing educational policy and accreditation to advance gerontological competency-based social work education In addition, questions that include gero competencies were written for the national licensure exam, which will be an ongoing process of question-writing; the extent of gero content within 45 accreditation self-studies was analyzed; and gero statistics collected as part of CSWE’s annual statistics identify an increase in gero content within social work programs.
Gero-Ed Center staff recently submitted a renewal proposal to Hartford for an additional five years of funding. We will update you in the next Aging Times about the initiatives in the renewal. We are most appreciative of faculty who provided input into the new directions outlined in the renewal and look forward to working with many of you on multifaceted initiatives.
By Nancy R. Hooyman,
Hooyman Endowed Professor of Gerontology, University of Washington, School of Social Work
Co-Principal Investigator, CSWE Gero-Ed Center
Three Groups Brought Together for a Successful Forum
The 2007 Gero-Ed Forum, held in Charleston, SC from February 2-4, 2007, was a huge success. Highlighting the interconnections of field and classroom curriculum, the Forum presented an opportunity for the Social Work Leadership Institute’s Practicum Partnership Program (PPP) at the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Gero-Ed Center Curriculum Development Institute (CDI) to join forces at this annual meeting. The Gero-Ed Forum provided networking opportunities and resources to “gerontologize” programs for the more than 270 conference attendees. Many of these resources are now available in the 2007 Gero-Ed Forum section of our Web site.
We were delighted to welcome our partners from the PPP. Nearly 40 faculty from 35 PPP sites across the country attended a workshop on sustainability and strategic planning for their programs. Grantees also shared opportunities to present their programs to the larger gerontological social work community, particularly through a lively Showcase reception. A third and final funding cycle for 25 additional schools seeking to implement the PPP model will be announced in fall 2007. For more information on the PPP, please visit www.socialworkleadership.org.
One hundred four (104) CDI faculty from 64 social work programs joined the PPP grantees. Faculty from across the nation met and collaborated for the first time at this third and final annual CDI, in contrast to prior regional meetings. Innovative accomplishments from this three-year curricular infusion program were disseminated at the CDI Resource Fair and the Gero-Ed Forum Showcase, where Forum participants also had a chance to interact with and learn from CDI faculty. CDI faculty collaboration will continue however, since many CDI regional groups made plans to present and meet at the 2007 CSWE APM and other future conferences.
The CDI and PPP programs both held pre-conference meetings on Friday, with a joint networking session in the afternoon, then joined the other Gero-Ed Forum participants for the intensive workshops on Saturday and Sunday. Thus, the Gero-Ed Forum presented a new opportunity for CDI and PPP participants to interact and collaborate as well as for faculty not affiliated with the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative to network with and learn from their colleagues.
A highlight of the Gero-Ed Forum was an interactive and dynamic Showcase Event that featured 50 presentations of the best practices in gerontology infusion nationally. Select presentations from this event, the Gero-Ed Forum intensive workshops, and a summary of the conference are available in the 2007 Gero-Ed Forum section of our Web site.
Gero-Ed Track Submission Deadline Approaches
Submissions to the CSWE Annual Program Meeting (APM), which includes the new Gero-Ed Track, are due April 27, 2007. Please review the Call for Proposals to submit your gerontology-related proposal today.
The Gero-Ed Track invites all abstracts on issues related to aging and intergenerational social work research, policy, education and practice, which have implications for faculty, students, field supervisors, and/or practitioners across a range of practice and educational settings. The Gero-Ed Track will debut at the 53rd CSWE Annual Program Meeting (APM) in San Francisco from October 27-30, 2007 and is consistent with the new format of APM tracks.
We also encourage social work students at each level (BSW, MSW, and PhD) to submit poster presentation proposals to the Gero-Ed Track in order to be eligible for the Anita Rosen Gerontology Award for Outstanding Student Poster. (Please read the Rosen Award article in this same issue of Aging Times.)
For more information about the Gero-Ed Track, please visit our Web site: www.Gero-EdCenter.org.
Deadline: April 27, 2007
MAC Project Gero Innovations Grant: Proposals Due Soon
The Master’s Advanced Curriculum (MAC) Project, the Gero-Ed Center’s newest project, is now accepting proposals for its Gero Innovations Grant. The Request for Proposals (RFP) is available online and proposals are due April 16, 2006 by 5:00 PM EDT.
The Gero Innovations Grant will provide funding for up to 20 MSW programs to infuse gerontological competencies into their curriculum for one or more of the three Master’s advanced specialty practice areas - mental health, substance use, and health. Please visit the MAC Project Web pages to access the RFP and supporting informational documents: www.Gero-EdCenter.org/mac/ .
The MAC Project is also seeking existing evidenced-based literature and curricular resources relevant to the aging population in the three practice areas. These materials will be reviewed and incorporated into a resource guide that will be disseminated to all social work programs. Examples of items that will be considered for this resource guide include but are not limited to: syllabi, case studies, and online teaching modules. Please contact Project Principal Investigator Dr. Sadhna Diwan at sdiwan@sjsu.edu with any materials to be considered for this guide.
Students – Submit Today for the Anita Rosen Gero Student Poster Awards
The deadline (April 27, 2007) for the 2nd Annual Anita Rosen Gerontology Award for Outstanding Student Poster is fast approaching. This award for outstanding gero student posters also comes with a cash prize of $1000. This is an excellent opportunity for BSW, MSW and PhD students to share their research and participate in a large, national social work conference.
To be eligible for a Rosen Award, students must submit a poster presentation to the 2007 CSWE Annual Program Meeting (APM) under the new Gero-Ed Track (in the Online Submission site, select “Gero-Ed” track and then “poster” as presentation format). Posters will be judged on-site and one student poster will be selected from each level (BSW, MSW and PhD).
Please review the CSWE APM Call for Proposals and the Rosen Award Guidelines before submitting your proposal on our Online Submission site. This award is made possible by a generous personal donation from Dr. Anita Rosen who has dedicated her career to advocating for social work students interested in gerontology and to the advancement of the field of gerontological social work education.