“What Do I Do Now?”

ABSTRACT

Recent advances made by medicine and psychiatry in the development of practice guidelines and evidence-based interventions are spreading to social work and other helping professions. As the movement toward evidence-based practice grows, more demands for the use of tested interventions will be placed on practitioners. In this paper, we argue that social work practice education must change to respond to this demand. Specifically, evidence-based interventions must be incorporated into the teaching of the middle phase of social work practice more than it is now. Social work training has traditionally relied on untested interventions that have come from the tacit knowledge of accumulated practice wisdom. Although tacit knowledge has an important place in social work practice, instructing students about evidence-based, empirically derived interventions provides them with critical knowledge and skills they will need to enter the competitive world of social work practice. Moreover, this approach amplifies the importance of launching practitioners with skills of evidence-based thinking; that is, the identification, evaluation, and selection of interventions with demonstrated effectiveness.     

Institutional innovations in higher education in central Europe: Agenda for research and co‐operation

Abstract

Research findings on graduate employment in the UK continue to highlight the importance that employers attach to the general knowledge, attitudes and social skills that graduates possess in addition to specific disciplinary knowledge and expertise. Additionally, work based learning is increasingly being viewed as an important vehicle by which undergraduates can develop personal and social skills, as well as gaining knowledge of how organisations work. In this paper I will argue that although developments in undergraduate work based learning do raise a number of issues for higher education institutions and for employers, such developments have much to offer the broader education policy of lifelong learning.     

Infusing Content About Discharging Legal Responsibilities into Social Work Practice Classes

ABSTRACT

In social work education, legal content may be best conveyed through infusion, rather than specialized law/social work courses. Infusion will occur differently in each social work education sequence (practice, human behavior, policy, and research). When infusing content about discharge of legal responsibilities into a practice class, the instructor should choose a common legal topic, and teach the relevant knowledge and skills. As the instructor generalizes from the topic presented, students learn that most legal topics affect practice in a complex manner. The example of legally mandated child maltreatment reporting is used to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and teaching methods. Implications are presented for social work literature, and for contact between social work faculty and field instructors.     

Untangling the Net

Abstract

The importance of computer training in social work education will continue to increase as the profession becomes more globalized and technological. It is the authors' premise that social work education must include the integration of training in computer technology. One resource available to educators is the Internet. The world wide web contains a vast amount of information on policy and social issues. This article discusses the use of web based learning exercises to simultaneously teach social policy and enhance student computer skills. Two learning exercises are presented which are designed for use in social work policy courses. The authors present their teaching experiences and provide suggestions on using this approach in the classroom environment. Information on resources and useful URL's for policy research is included in the discussion.     

You've Got to Be Taught

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education's Handbook on Accreditation and Procedures (1991) reiterates the council's previous mandate for incorporation of knowledge of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity throughout both the undergraduate and graduate social work curriculum. This article presents an integrative cognitive and affective learning framework for multicultural social work education. The model encourages students' addressing the significance of their racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage and emphasizes the effects of this education and enrichment in developing an ethnic-sensitive social work practice.     

Using Standardized Clients in the Classroom: An Evaluation of a Training Module to Teach Active Listening Skills to Social Work Students

This article describes the implementation of a module that utilizes drama students to teach social work students how to use active listening skills in an interview environment. The module was implemented during a semester‐long micro skills practice course taught to 13 undergraduate social work seniors in a western liberal arts university. Four drama students attending the same university served as clients. Clients evaluated the social work students' active listening skills at the end of the interview, and social work students completed self evaluations and evaluations on the module. Results indicated that the module was effective in helping students to learn interviewing skills and identify strengths and weakness regarding use of skills. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

The Pedagogy and Principles of Teaching Therapeutic Practice with Children and Young People

Technical approaches suggesting that systematically produced, generalized, and scientific knowledge are the most solid foundations for practice present significant challenges for the social work profession, in which the decisions faced often are not technical but rather moral, requiring the application of ethically based and intuitive skills. Meanwhile, the command, control, and measurement of outcomes in social work practice also present significant conundrums for the delivery of relational person-centered social work and social care. With a focus too often on efficiency rather than on effectiveness, this managerialistic approach frequently fails to acknowledge the complexity inherent in the act of caring. In this context and framework, teaching therapeutic practice with children draws a balance between traditional systematic teaching methods and use of creative media including art, play, and music. This article outlines the positive contribution to professional social work practice that the teaching of therapeutic approaches to child care can make.     

Immersion Learning in Social Work Education: A Pedagogical Tool for Enriching Knowledge and Practice Skills among BSW Students

Immersion learning is one form of experiential education and has great utility in social work education. However, there is limited research on student learning outcomes from immersion learning courses in social work education. This ethnographic research describes an immersion learning course offered to BSW students (N = 9) and the learning outcomes gained. This semester-long course focused on macrolevel practice with people experiencing poverty, homelessness, and the sexual exploitation of women. As part of this course, students went on a weeklong immersion trip, where they visited a dozen human service organizations and interacted with people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Qualitative analysis produced three findings. First, students reported that these interactions helped them realize their biases and impacted their understanding of poverty. Second, students reported enhanced social work practice skills, such as cultural competency, self-awareness, and interpersonal expertise. They also gained a better appreciation for macrolevel practice. Third, students reported a better understanding of how to deploy classroom knowledge in practice and how to apply what they learned back in the classroom. These findings have implications for undergraduate social work education and how immersion learning programs can be a tool for enriching both knowledge and practice skills.     

The Theoretical Links Between Problem-based Learning and Self-directed Learning for Continuing Professional Nursing Education

Professional undergraduate nursing education programmes share the goal of preparing competent graduates who will successfully make the transition to the world of professional nursing practice. Furthermore, society demands continued professional accountability for competence in an era of exponential knowledge proliferation and technological change. One way to meet this demand is for every practicing professional to engage in continuing professional nursing education. If professional nurses are to maximize continuous learning, they need to be able to manage and monitor their own learning. This means that professional nurses engaged in continuous learning should have the ability to be self directed. The use of problem-based learning (PBL) as an instructional methodology in undergraduate nursing curricula has been identified as one way to facilitate the development of nursing students' abilities to become self-directed in learning. The theoretical links between PBL and self-directed learning are discussed.     

Building upon synergies among self-regulated learning and formative assessment research and practice

ABSTRACT

The synergies that result from synthesising conceptual models and findings from self-regulated learning and formative assessment research are launching a new era of scholarship. They drive new questions about how to help students to internalise complimentary self-regulatory and assessment knowledge, skills, and dispositions as well as how to prepare teachers and education systems to prioritise and support this work. The articles in this special issue illustrate the power and importance of studying how self-regulation and classroom assessment emerge from social, contextual, historical, and cultural factors. Four themes emerged from the articles in this special issue, including new conceptualisations of self-regulated learning and formative assessment, insights regarding teachers’ dual role in enacting and promoting self-regulation, recognition of the critical role of students’ ability to productively use assessment information, and the need to instantiate self-regulated learning and assessment literacy as formal and valued curricular outcomes.     

“I Thought I Hated Data”: Preparing MSW Students for Data-driven Practice

Social work is an applied profession using a combination of theory, research, and practice to meet the needs of client populations. First-hand experiential learning is central to social work education. Just as students learn clinical skills by interacting with clients in a practice setting, students need a forum to use real data to develop their skills in accessing, understanding, interpreting, and presenting answers to pertinent social work research questions. This paper describes one university's efforts to design and implement coursework opportunities for students to integrate the use of actual data to answer pertinent real-world research and evaluation questions.     

The Simulation of a Neighborhood Family Service Center for Teaching Macro Practice

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an approach to teaching macro practice that involves students in the development of a simulated neighborhood family service center. Utilizing existing partnerships between a urban university, several public schools and social-health agencies, students work with actual data from census reports and community surveys to design and administer a simulated center and its programs. An integrated macro practice framework is utilized to ensure that students develop a set of knowledge and skills for community and agency based practice. The course embodies the belief that students must be educated to integrate community and organizational theory and practice in order to be agents of social change. Implications for social work education will be discussed.     

The use of drama to teach social skills in a special school setting for students with autism

For children with autism, social challenges may be both part of the disability and a barrier to accessing education. This article reports on a project that used drama to address such challenges by drawing on the social skills of non‐autistic peers in a special school setting. The article demonstrates how drama's flexibility may be harnessed in order to help students support each other's development of creative and communicative skills. Focusing on two children in particular, specific examples are given to illustrate how they participated in group work, made imaginative contributions to verbal and physical representations and engaged with abstract ideas. The project's outcomes suggest that, given a concrete structure and an invitation to collaborate, drama can be a powerful learning medium for children with autistic spectrum disorder. The conclusion reflects on the diverse meaning of inclusive practice that can be achieved within specialist settings.     

Relational Learning in Social Work Education: Transformative Education for Teaching a Course on Loss,Grief and Death

This article explores the relational learning model for teaching clinical social work practice. Evaluations of a course on loss, grief, and death illustrate that relational learning methods enhanced students' relational and communicative knowledge and skills, and contributed to a transformative learning process. Relational learning is a method of teaching that is consistent with the postmodern classroom and with the mission of contemporary social work practice.     

A SELECTED LIST OF TEXTBOOKS AVAILABLE FOR USE IN THE GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL

This study investigates Suhrawardi's epistemological and philosophical point of view in order to analyze and elicit its educational outcomes. His philosophy, which can be called eclectic philosophy (involving intellect and intuition), regularly proposes a different philosophical system with intuitionist outlook. It is the combination of two philosophical and mystical views, namely Aristotle's logical reasoning and Plato's mysticism. Suhrawardi has rather suggested this belief in the field of acquiring knowledge by humans that depends on three levels of knowledge, namely intuitive knowledge (using senses), knowledge via observation (mystical intuition), and illuminated knowledge. The third level of knowledge leads a human to the verity of knowledge. Therefore, this view about knowledge, and process of this knowledge acquisition, will have educational implications such as aims, principles, and teaching–learning methodology.     

Building capacity in social care: an evaluation of a national programme of action learning facilitator development

This account of practice shares the findings of an evaluation into the impact of a facilitator development programme on participants' knowledge, skills and subsequent practice. The Centre for Action Learning Facilitation was established to develop action learning set advisors and has been working with Skills for Care over the last two years to develop an internal capacity in social work departments to use action learning primarily to support newly qualified staff.     

Filmmaking education and enterprise culture: an ethnographic exploration of two filmmaking education contexts and their relation to bedroom culture and the creative workplace

ABSTRACT

Filmmaking education has never been firmly integrated into schooling and in past years has suffered from cuts to funding for formal and non-formal arts education and youth work. It continues to exist only by drawing on creative industry and cultural consumption practices as well as state funding. In this paper, we explore the filmmaking education contexts we encountered while doing our own pieces of year-long ethnographic research. These contexts import ‘enterprising’ ways of thinking, doing and being from the creative workplace and ‘bedroom culture’. Located across life’s domains, they address enterprising subjects who take pleasure in work, make use of leisure and are always learning. We argue that these filmmaking education contexts support young people to develop their private creative practice and introduce them to the possibility of work in the creative industries but, because of the enterprise culture in which they are entangled, uncritically address these young people as enterprising subjects.     

Vocational education and training and the therapeutic turn

The concept of ‘therapeutic education’ is being increasingly used in contemporary education policy studies to identify learning initiatives which are dominated by objectives linked to personal and social skills, emotional intelligence and building self‐esteem. Contemporary educational goals connected with such strategies have been criticised for encouraging a ‘victim culture’ which marginalises learners and replaces the pursuit of knowledge and understanding with the development of personal values relevant to a life of social, cultural and economic risk and uncertainty. In relation to vocational education and training (VET) and post‐school policy trends in particular, Hayes has argued that preparation for work has abandoned vocational/occupational knowledge and skills in favour of providing learners with personal skills for emotional labour in low‐level service jobs. This paper interrogates such analyses and questions whether the therapeutic role of VET really is incompatible with the traditional objectives of developing knowledge, understanding and values in work environments. Links are made between new emphases on work‐based learning and the ‘caring’ conceptions of learning in post‐school education. It is concluded that—although therapy should not dominate VET—an attention to the important values dimension of learning in the field does involve a therapeutic dimension of some kind.     

Roles and Tasks of Field Instructors as Perceived by Chinese Social Work Students

ABSTRACT

From its inception, social work education has consistently embraced the position that field learning is an essential element of professional education. It is through field work that the student has the opportunity to apply knowledge gained in the classroom and to learn the skills necessary for effective social work practice

A study conducted by Fortune et at. (1985) on student satisfaction with field placement revealed that the field instructor or supervisor was a link to student satisfaction with the field practicum. Much has been written on the concept and principles of field education, with discussions on the field instructor's functions in field instruction. However, it seems that such discussions vary greatly in their degree of specificity in spelling out the field instruction tasks. On the other hand, relatively little has been reported on how social work students perceive the roles and tasks of field instructors. It seems obvious that students, with first hand experiences in field work practice, can contribute much to the formulation of knowledge in field instruction

Hence, it is vital and essential to study what social work students actually expect of the roles and behaviors of field instructors as contrast to what is written in the theories of field instruction.

This paper attempts to identify the set of behaviours and tasks perceived by students as important to the work of a field instructor. In the process, it is also envisaged that the “anatomy of field instruction” can be better understood through a clear specification of the activities involved.     

Career Paths of Health Workers

Abstract

This article presents an evaluation of an innovative, three-year graduate program to prepare workers from educationally disadvan-taged backgrounds for professional careers in social work in an urban health care system. It analyzes the contributions to the Social Work Health Careers Opportunity Program (SWHCOP) of a course designed to provide: an overview of health care issues and policies; beginning knowledge, values and skills for social work practice in health care; and an opportunity to acquire or strengthen skills for graduate education, including oral and written communications, problem-solving, and critical thinking. This article considers the practice, policy and teaching implications of such an educational program for increasing access to professional careers in social work for members of educationally disadvantaged communities.