Assistive Technology for Successful Aging: Perspectives from Developmental Behavioral and Neuroscience

Growing into old age is a personal privilege and a societal achievement. However, it is also a challenge for both the individuals and societies. The impressive gains in extending average physical longevity to 75 years and beyond is not necessary accompanied by high-levels of physical, psychological, and brain "fitness". Thus, it is important to seek ways to help older adults maintaining functions in these domains in order to maintain life quality in old age. Adaptive assistive devices and environments are promising technological advancements for promoting successful aging. Sufficient plasticity in the aging psychological and neurocognitive systems are necessary for technologies to engender desired effects. Designs and evaluations of assistive technologies need to consider dynamic changes in developmental resources across the lifespan. This paper reviews evidence of behavioral and neurocognitive plasticity in old age and highlights psychological principles for successful aging technologies

Comparison of research and practice orientation between teacher and medical training

Im Lehramt existieren Bemühungen, evidenzbasiertes Handeln nach dem Vorbild der evidenzbasierten Medizin zu etablieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund vergleicht der Beitrag die Forschungs- und Praxisorientierung im Medizinstudium und im Lehramtsstudium anhand von Daten des NEPS. Unsere Analysen weisen aus Sicht der Studierenden eine stärkere Forschungs- und Praxisorientierung des Medizinstudiums auf. Der Befund wird mit Blick auf den Ruf nach einer evidenzorientierten Unterrichtspraxis diskutiert. (DIPF/Orig.)There are efforts to establish evidence-based action in teacher education similar to evidence-based medicine. Against this background, the present study compares the research as well as the practical orientation in medical and teacher education with data from the NEPS. Our analyses show that students assign a stronger research and practice orientation to medical education. This is discussed in terms of the call for evidence-oriented teaching practice. (DIPF/Orig.

Core Practices for practical semester in teacher educationprograms. A Delphi-study

Core Practices sind individuell entwickelte Handlungspraktiken als Antwort auf zentrale Herausforderungen des Lehrberufs. Sie können insbesondere in Praxisphasen der Lehramtsausbildung vermittelt und eingeübt werden. Denkbar ist, dass eine Kooperation der drei am Praxissemester beteiligten Institutionen durch den Austausch über Core Practices unterstützt werden kann. Die Studie verfolgt mithilfe eines Delphi-Ansatzes das Ziel, einen Katalog von Core Practices für das Praxissemester zu identifizieren, zu systematisieren und zu beschreiben. (DIPF/Orig.)Individually developed Core Practices can be seen as an answer to central challenges of the teaching profession. They show potential to overcome the hurdles in the implementation of the university practical semester. A cooperation between the three institutions involved in the practical semester can be supported by the deliberation about core practices. Using a Delphi approach, a total of 12 core practices for the practical semester were developed, systematized and described. (DIPF/Orig.

Psychological principles of successful aging technologies: A mini-review

Based on resource-oriented conceptions of successful life-span development, we propose three principles for evaluating assistive technology: (a) net resource release; (b) person specificity, and (c) proximal versus distal frames of evaluation. We discuss how these general principles can aid the design and evaluation of assistive technology in adulthood and old age, and propose two technological strategies, one targeting sensorimotor and the other cognitive functioning. The sensorimotor strategy aims at releasing cognitive resources such as attention and working memory by reducing the cognitive demands of sensory or sensorimotor aspects of performance. The cognitive strategy attempts to provide adaptive and individualized cuing structures orienting the individual in time and space by providing prompts that connect properties of the environment to the individual's action goals. We argue that intelligent assistive technology continuously adjusts the balance between `environmental support' and `self-initiated processing' in person-specific and aging-sensitive ways, leading to enhanced allocation of cognitive resources. Furthermore, intelligent assistive technology may foster the generation of formerly latent cognitive resources by activating developmental reserves (plasticity). We conclude that `lifespan technology', if co-constructed by behavioral scientists, engineers, and aging individuals, offers great promise for improving both the transition from middle adulthood to old age and the degree of autonomy in old age in present and future generations. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Two sides of the same coin? A comparison of research and practice orientation for teachers and doctors

Teacher training and medical degrees prepare students for evidence-based practice. This study examines how the learning opportunities of both programmes qualify students for this. Until now, a large-scale perspective on the university courses of student teachers and medical students in Germany has been lacking. The present study aims to fill this gap by comparing learning opportunities in teacher training and medical degrees. Three research questions are addressed: (1) Are the learning opportunities oriented to research and practice? (2) How are the learning opportunities designed didactically? (3) Which didactic designs are related to research orientation and practice orientation? NEPS-data from student teachers (N = 6322) and medical students (N = 1063) were used for the analyses. On this basis, implications for the design of teacher training learning opportunities are discussed

Welches Feedback geben Dozent*innen Studierenden im Praxissemester?

Die Autoren befassen sich in ihrem Beitrag mit dem Nutzen von Lerntagebüchern als Feedbackinstrument im Rahmen des Praxissemesters. Der Einsatz der Lerntagebücher habe zum Ziel, eine tragfähige Verknüpfung der in der Praxis gemachten Erfahrungen mit dem angeeigneten Wissen zu fördern. Aufgabe der Dozierenden bestehe dann darin, den Studierenden Rückmeldung auf die im Lerntagebuch festgehaltenen Erfahrungen zu geben, um Lerngelegenheiten der Reflexion zu eröffnen. Gemessen an den Hattie-Kriterien (Where am I going? How am I doing? Where to next?, Hattie, 2009) zeigten die Ergebnisse einer in diesem Rahmen durchgeführten Evaluationsstudie, dass die Dozierenden überwiegend effektives Feedback geben, dass sich jedoch auch eine gewisse Rollenunklarheit der Dozierenden feststellen ließe, die sich durch das komplexe Zusammenspiel der am Praxissemester beteiligten Institutionen ergebe. Eine Unterstützung der im Praxissemester eingesetzten Dozierenden durch gezielte Weiterbildungsangebote sei deshalb empfehlenswert, wird abschließend konstatiert. (DIPF/Orig.

Eine Taxonomie der Evidenzorientierung im Bildungsbereich – was, wozu, wo und wie?

Die Nutzung von Evidenz ist eine Herausforderung für die Lehrkräftebildung. Studien und konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu diesem Thema zeichnen sich durch unterschiedliche Zugriffe auf Evidenz aus. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden diese Zugriffe anhand von vier Fragen diskutiert: (1) Was ist Evidenz? (2) Wozu kann diese genutzt werden? (3) Wo ist Evidenz zu finden? (4) Wie kann Evidenz kommuniziert werden? Abschließend schlagen wir eine Taxonomie der Nutzung von Evidenz vor und diskutieren mögliche Implikationen für die Lehrkräftebildung

Interacting Effects of Cognitive Load and Adult Age on the Regularity of Whole-Body Motion During Treadmill Walking

We investigated effects of concurrent cognitive task difficulty (n-back) on the regularity of whole-body movements during treadmill walking in women and men from 3 age groups (20-30, 60-70, and 70-80 years old). Using principal component analysis of individual gait patterns, we separated main (regular) from residual (irregular) components of whole-body motion. Proportion of residual variance (RV) was used as an index of gait irregularity. The gait in all age groups became more regular (reduced RV) upon introduction of a simple cognitive task (1-back), relative to walking without a concurrent cognitive task. In contrast, parametrically increasing working memory load from 1-back to 4-back led to age-differential effects, with gait patterns becoming more regular in those 20-30 years old, becoming less regular in those 70-80 years old, and showing no significant effects in those 60-70 years old. Our results support the dual-process account of sensorimotor-cognitive interactions (O. Huxhold, S.-C. Li, F. Schmiedek, and U. Lindenberger, 2006), with age-general effects of internal versus external attentional focus and age-specific effects of resource competition with increasing cognitive task difficulty