What is an intergenerational classroom?
At the beginning of the 2016-17 academic year, Needham Yancey Gulley published an Inside Higher Ed article challenging educators to move away from a seemingly dated term—nontraditional—because it labeled students in a way that could harm their opportunities in the classroom. At the same time, there really are differences among and between the generations, as both the academic literature and popular culture attest. Rather than enjoying a cohesive or intergenerational approach, Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers are often pitted against one another in what The Washington Post calls “generational warfare.” This essay considers ways to facilitate an intergenerational classroom that acknowledges and celebrates generational differences while not letting them become a source of anxiety or conflict.
Four steps to use Local, Intergenerational Programs Work
While early reading proficiency and higher education are essential to young people achieving long-term quality of life, health is a key factor in the quality of life of older adults. A lack of social, cognitive, and physical activity is directly tied to diminished cognitive function, reduced independence; increased risk of falls and fractures; and increased disability, hospitalizations, and death rates.
Like most nonprofits, funders, policymakers, and professionals typically propose separate solutions for these two groups' problems. Educators suggest enrichment and remediation for enhancing academic outcomes; health care professionals propose diet, exercise, and other medical interventions for improving health outcomes for older adults. However, as other essays in this series have discussed, age-segregated solutions overlook the profound ways in which young and older individuals can benefit from mutual engagement—young people from extra support, older adults from healthy activity, and engagement in meaningful societal roles. Tutoring support in the classroom is no exception. An intergenerational approach where older adults step in to help students learn can benefit both.
For others interested in intergenerational solutions to improve education and well-being for young and older populations in underserved communities, we offer four insights:
1. Local Recruitment
Recruitment in our field offices differs from our regular recruitment process. In short, the key points of difference are:
Candidates must already be present in the host country at the time of recruitment.
All contracts offered under this type of recruitment are temporary contracts that can be renewed annually.
The recruitment process involves shortlisting and interviews. In some cases, candidates may also be asked to sit assessments.
The conditions of remuneration are different, in particular about the applicable allowances.
2. Provide Adequate Training to Volunteers and Teachers
Among the things that make volunteers happy are a good orientation to your organization and basic training.
Just getting the volunteer in the door is not enough. Like any employee, a volunteer needs to feel welcomed, informed, and trained for whatever might happen.
Orientation is just like it sounds. Volunteers want to know the context in which they will be doing their work. Sure, they have read your website and some printed material. However, those items do not take the place of a real person who can describe the ins and outs of working in your charity’s environment and answer any questions volunteers have.
Today, much volunteer orientation and training occur online, either in the volunteer’s home before they come to the site or at a computer at your facility. However, supplement that online training with at least a brief face-to-face session where unforeseen concerns can be addressed.
3. Build Alliances With Educators
The positive impact of coaching on teaching and student outcomes is becoming more and more indisputable. But the devil is in the details. Specifically, there are certain key ingredients that we know contribute to the success of the coaching process: pairing coaching with professional learning opportunities; ensuring coaching cycles include observation, modeling, and providing performance feedback to teachers face-to-face, virtually, or both; and customizing the dosage of coaching (Kraft, Blazar, & Hogan, 2018). Perhaps the most important ingredient is to ensure coaches have a positive alliance (or relationship) with teachers (Gessnitzer & Kauffeld, 2015).
Why are teacher-coach relationships so important? Positive relationships serve as the foundation for all the work coaches conduct with teachers. When positive relationships are in place, teachers are primed to be observed by their coach, see their coach model how to implement a practice, and receive positive and corrective feedback on their teaching.
Moreover, teachers with a positive coaching alliance tend to show greater improvement in instruction than teachers who have negative relationships with their coaches (Wehby et al., 2012). Thus, the teacher-coach alliance can influence the attainment of coaching goals—mainly, improved teaching—which can influence the degree to which students show improved learning outcomes.
4. Watch for Unexpected Benefits
Did you know that there are valuable benefits to buying watches at authorized dealers and brand boutiques that aren’t typically advertised and that you very well might not know about? It’s true, and while our goal isn’t to tell people where to buy their watches, there is an infrequently discussed story here to share with watch lovers.
As a consumer, your job is to get the most value for your money. Smart consumers spend less to get more, and when people overpay, we look down upon them. These natural tendencies of consumer behavior aren’t abandoned when buying luxury goods such as watches. This article aims to show certain “hidden areas of value” that might very well change why and where people make their watch purchase decisions. I first want to put this whole article into context because people without experience buying watches might not understand all the places where watches are available and their various pluses and minuses.
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