Proceedings of the 6th Global Conference on Education and Teaching
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
Flipped Classroom and Collaborative Work to Promote Positive Attitudes Towards Ageing and Retirement in Higher Education
Mª Teresa Vega, María Natividad Elvira
ABSTRACT:
Healthy ageing is a major achievement of modern science, but negative social stereotypes and ageism persist, affecting the quality of life of older people. The World Health Organization defines ageism as discrimination based on age and identifies strategies to combat it, including policies, educational interventions and intergenerational contact. This study, in which 126 undergraduate students of Psychology and Social Work at the University of Salamanca participated, focused on educating future professionals to improve their attitudes towards ageing and retirement through innovative methodologies such as flipped classroom and collaborative work. A longitudinal descriptive correlational design and a quasi-experimental pre-post approach with intervention and comparison groups at each grade level was used. The Flipped Classroom methodology allowed students to actively and autonomously learn theoretical and practical concepts related to ageism, using the practical classes for group discussions and question solving. The collaborative work focused on the design of intergenerational programmes aimed at fostering the development of interpersonal skills and essential ethical values in professional practice in the field of active ageing. The results showed a significant decrease in negative stereotypes towards old age and some negative attitudes towards retirement, with greater changes in psychology students. The results of this study underline the importance of including in university training educational programmes that address the promotion of positive attitudes in future social workers and psychologists who will be working in the field of healthy ageing.
keywords: ageism; educational interventions; healthy ageing; intergenerational programs