Thank you for your interest in teaching seniors. Teaching older adults in the mountain environment provides a unique challenge. Working with seniors requires both strong foundations in the fundamentals of skiing as well as a solid knowledge of the way older adults move, learn, and engage in the sport. The purpose of the Senior Specialist program is to provide educational training for instructors of all ages and various abilities to gain the tools and knowledge necessary to provide high quality teaching and performance enhancement outcomes for the senior skier seeking lessons. This curriculum meets the unique needs of teaching to the senior population.
The Senior Teaching Certificate program consists of the Senior Teaching Certificate 1 (STC 1) and Senior Teaching Certificate 2 (STC 2) educational courses. This is a certificate program which is based on an educational framework with an assessment component. The Senior Teaching Certificate program is based upon the PSIA-NW Senior Teaching Standard referenced in its entirety in the appendix of the Senior Teaching Manual. The Senior Teaching Standard is derived upon existing National Standards including Alpine, Children, and Snowboard.
The premise of the Senior Teaching Standards is based upon the concepts of “levels of understanding” levels that define stages of learning within degrees of understanding. Just as certification is a measure of understanding, levels of certification represent stages of understanding. Although not a certification, Senior Teaching Certificate participants will be expected to meet levels of competency as defined by STC 1 and STC 2 standards. Participants will be held to the knowledge and performance standards of the level at which they are participating as well as the criteria for all preceding levels. Levels of participant expectation are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, referenced further in the Senior Teaching Standard.
