Although there is some geriatric content in optometry curriculum, such as pathology and diseases associated with aging, the emphasis would be better placed on aging as a normal process. Further education about the elderly population as a whole and further legislation for comprehensive care are needed. (MSE)

The rationale for having health care practitioners teach students includes the optimal education of the students and continuing education for the practitioners themselves. Some goals and objectives for practitioner-instructors are provided, and instructional techniques utilized by optometric practitioner-instructors are described. (MLW)

The Vision Educational Foundation, an independent organization of programs and projects to meet the challenges of the optometric profession, is described. The foundation provides long-range support to educational institutions, builds an endowment fund, generates funding, and fosters educational projects. (MLW)

The success of the profession is seen to hinge on the success of the private practitioner. The need for adequate education in business management in the optometric curriculum and optometric continuing education programs is stressed. A high sense of ethics is thought to be aided by competent business ability. (MLW)

The New England College of Optometry has developed a clinical curriculum that utilizes external clinical affiliates as a part of the fourth-year training process. Educational opportunities in primary, secondary, and tertiary care settings provide students with a wide range of patient care experiences. (Author/MLW)

A teaching technique where the lecture is interspersed with a series of multiple-choice questions displayed on 35mm slides or transparencies that can be projected by the overhead projector is described. The lecture progresses by projection and full discussion of each question. Layout of a typical question is appended. (MLW)

A national center for health professions education research is proposed to facilitate well-funded, peer-reviewed, academically credible research. Its goals would allow for testing of models to provide health professionals with education grounded in sound methodology and content. (Author/MSE)

Issues relating to the optometry school's provision of remedial instruction for students in academic difficulty are discussed, including the adequacy of admissions policies and criteria, student unawareness of the required level of commitment, early identification of academic difficulties, remedial program design, costs, and legal considerations.…

Second-year optometry students were asked to review videotapes of themselves performing two patient examinations to increase awareness of the examination process. A study of compliance with the assignment and later performance found that the perceived or potential gains from viewing one's own performance were not reflected in clinical evaluations.…

Two innovative advanced degree programs in postclinical, research-oriented optometric education at Ohio State University are described briefly. One is a combined professional and research degree program at the master's and doctoral levels. The other is a two-year postclinical degree format combining a half-time patient care residency and a…

As optometry expands its science curriculum, teaching methods must be examined. Instructional modalities must fit teaching needs, facilitate and improve student learning capacity, and be efficient; the student must participate as much as possible; and faculty must be aware of what colleagues are teaching and be receptive to new methods. (MSE)

A survey of second- and third-year students at two optometry schools investigated how many students bought required textbooks, utility of the book, prices students were willing to pay, feelings about book price in relation to tuition, and reasons for not buying the text. Class size was also considered. (MSE)

Two classroom studies assessed the introduction of innovative instructional techniques, based on adult learning principles, in optometric education. The first involved group projects and related student presentations, and the second introduced active learning methods in place of lectures. (Author/MSE)

InSight, a series of 10 HyperCard stacks, provides optometry students with first-hand experience with a number of visual phenomena and a variety of experimental data acquisition and analysis techniques. Each stack contains background information on the experiment topic, instructions, references to the literature, and questions to be answered.…

A survey of 16 optometry schools shows foreign student enrollment up from 1.1 percent to 2.1 percent of total enrollment between 1977-78 and 1989-90. A rapid increase in Canadian students is noted, with growth from 19 percent to 54.4 percent of all foreign enrollment. Opportunities for improving the field worldwide are seen in these trends. (MSE)