The magec fellowship experience: A model for personalized adult education in aging

Faculty teaching in aging-related areas in a variety of disciplines participated in a yearlong training program designed to improve their knowledge and skills in topics related to aging and to increase their appreciation for how other disciplines address these topics. The disciplines involved included medicine, dentistry, nursing, social work, pharmacy, public health, psychology, sociology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and public policy. The training, which covered 2 days each month, included didactic sessions and problem-oriented exercises. Participants were expected to function as teachers as well as learners. In addition, each trainee completed an educational or research project. The evaluations of the program were based on questionnaires completed after the end of each program year. There were good results for passive cognitive learning, slightly less good results for active cognitive learning, and mixed results for affective learning. Other indications of the program's success were seen in the establishment of four regional Geriatric Education Centers, the nucleus of each of which was the former fellows in the area, and the number of new projects and collaborations stimulated by the training ex perience.