Teaching pedagogies enhancing social work students' perceptions and attitudes toward older age in an undergraduate course on working with older people.

Approximately threefold increases in older age population groups (+65 years) are projected in the next 15 years. Demographic changes in society will mean greater numbers of older adults in proportion to the younger generation. In the current policy on older age groups, emphasis is placed on healthy aging warranting a multidisciplinary workforce to work with older people. Despite this need and increased demand in the aged care sector, a fewer social work students are willing to undertake aged care placements or to choose it as a career option. An innovative teaching and learning pedagogy was used in designing the course curriculum titled 'Social Work with Older People', including the input of invited specialist guest speakers, an on-campus interactive workshop with older guests, and an assessment designed to evaluate the learning related to the workshop content. The paper reports changes in the attitudes of students studying gerontological social work after the course delivery, evaluated through an online survey with the purpose of improving the learning outcomes in the course and to gauge students' interest, experiences, attitudes and motivation to work in the aged care sector. The paper contributes to building knowledge in addressing the needs of the changing social demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]