This paper examines various issues and concerns of importance to death educators and program administrators. Benefits of examining issues surrounding death and dying, readiness of people to explore this subject, ethical concerns for death educators, and status of outcome research evaluating effects and effectiveness of death education programs are…

American society has been transforming itself from one in which older people were held in increasingly low esteem and characterized by a multiplicity of derogative stereotypes to one in which the roles and styles of life of older adults will be viewed as positive and contributive. (Author)

The humanistic instructional strategies employed in a retirement education program package represent a previously untried and viable alternative to traditional instructional strategies. A heuristic evaluation study measured pilot program participants' reactions to several aspects of the program package; 74 percent responded favorably and 93…

The publication of acquisitions lists from gerontology centers, the development of the National Clearinghouse on Aging, and the trend toward new reference books in gerontology are encouraging development of bibliographic control of resource materials. Discusses various reference tools in gerontology and points out areas for further growth. (Author)

It is outlined that the basic operant principles, behavioral plasticity and functional interdependence of behavioral and environmental events, best describe the increasing body of data on reversibility of decline and optimizability of functioning in old age. (Author)

Many older adults will seek additional education during their lifetimes. Since these persons differ widely in their physical, social, intellectual, and psychological characteristics, it is important that these programs be humanistic in design and implementation. (Author)

The schools of education at 88 institutions that offer graduate-level training in adult education were surveyed for information pertinent to their course offerings in and about aging. Of these 88 schools, only 19 percent offer courses in education and aging. (Author)

The provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935 are reviewed and suggestions are made for improvement in the system. The author stresses that the income maintenance standards must be revised so that the Social Security system will continue to exist. (HLM)

An age-related decline in performance is typically observed in research on tasks that rely on cognitive processing. However, such declines must not be accepted as indisputable evidence that the learning efficiency of older adults is necessarily impared. A number of noncognitive factors also mitigate against optimal performance in the aged. (Author)

Several specific mass media programs and publications for older persons are briefly reviewed. Also dealt with are some leading experiments in the field. General considerations for projects involving mass communication and older persons are presented, and a number of questions for further study are detailed. (Author)

One problem facing gerontological educators today is the demand for individualization or personalization of instruction. This paper describes a procedure that has been successfully utilized in other areas to meet this demand. Appropriate application of materials presented here will make gerontological education more relevant. (Author)

Examines the potential of early retirement programs as a means of adjusting to the needs for a steady state staffing pattern during the next decade and beyond. Even though early retirement does not seem encouraging, tentative recommendations are offered for its effective use. (Author)

This paper reviews the literature on sex differences in spatial performance in older persons, proposes a theory of measurement, operational psychogenetic structuralism, for the analysis of sex differences in cognition, and suggests research directions relevant to educational gerontology. (Author)

Andragogy is discussed as a relevant participatory adult education technique. The applicability of andragogy as a preretirement education process is explained and the task-oriented training model of preretirement education is discussed. Aging adults are competent, capable learners, and the andragogical process is one very effective way of assuring…

The need for provision of recreation services to the homebound aging has been recognized by many senior center organizers and directors. Because the attitudes and actions of both individuals and organizations are strongly affected by the social and cultural environment of their past, a history of both recreation and home-delivered services to the…