Socialization of Doctoral Students: Implications for Social Work Education

Recent discussions on social work education increasingly have drawn attention to doctoral education. The purpose of this article is to consider these discussions that debated some of the ways of improving doctoral student education and professional development, using professional socialization as a conceptual framework. Issues such as research, teaching, and research assistantship, and conferences are considered as key components of the process of preparing doctoral students for knowledge building through teaching and research. Finally, the paper discusses some implications for social work education.     

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.     

The transfer of reflective engagement from social work education into the workplace: a study of the value of scaffolded reflection

The focal concern of this article is the investigation of the transfer and sustainability of the reflective process into the work environment. Specifically, the identification of the variables which support or challenge practitioners to continue the ongoing process of reflection in practice contexts is addressed. The article describes a study carried out over a seven-year period with students/graduates from a master's in social work (MSW) professional qualification programme in Ireland. The research involved gathering data on participants’ experiences of reflective teaching and learning while on the course and in the initial years of their work as practitioners. In the early phases of the data collection, participants referred to developing epistemological awareness through the reflective process while on the course. This was in the context of a scaffold for reflection through journal writing and mentored portfolio inquiry. The outcomes of the study offer considerable insight into the challenges and value of developing a reflective teaching and learning environment in professional education. In particular, the work highlights how it impacts positively on professional practice.     

Taking the Show on the Road in Holding Academic Classes in Community Agencies: Exploratory Study Findings

Social work educators often teach students clinical knowledge within a university classroom, whereas students tend to learn clinical practice through their practicum experiences. This article describes data from a cross-sectional, mixed-method study on one way to effectively bridge the gap between teaching clinical knowledge and practice to graduate students. In this study, students participated in a newly developed and delivered 3-hour weekly course, over 12 weeks, based around students’ observation of ongoing live family therapy sessions at a children’s mental health organization. Findings suggest that this course design can fill a gap between the classroom and practicum experiences for students.     

A Model for Using Research Methodologies in Practice

Abstract

Practice domain and needs of a profession should determine development and use of research methodologies. The complexity and broad range of social work interventions require an approach to research that is more far-reaching, with greater depth, than offered by either the positivists or post-modernists. In this article, a model presents research as skills of social work practice, integrating the contentious practice research dichotomy. Acknowledging that differences in language and perceptions of practitioners and researchers create enormous challenges, a basic assumption in the model is that good practitioners conduct research in their implementation of practice. Juxtaposing practice components with research methodologies, case material illustrates the professional helping relationship as a shared conceptualization of reality, social work assessment as theory construction with need for validity and reliability, and use of triangulation to prevent drift and unplanned shifts in the intervention.     

陶行知教育思想对社会工作实务教学的启示

社会工作实务教学中存在着实务课程缺乏、督导指导不足等问题,而陶行知强调实践的作用和强调外来教育思想的“本土化”等理念为社会工作实务教学提供了重要帮助。将陶行知教育思想引入社会工作实务教学,有助于社会工作实务教育任务的明确和理性对待书本知识,更有利于社会工作实务中的“教学做合一”和教法的选择。     

Critical Thinking

Abstract

The process of critical thinking enables students to explore, analyze, and evaluate problems, theories, and interventions from divergent views and varying frames of reference. It requires a certain amount of skepticism and curiosity that will reflect upon accepted doctrines and protocols, in order to ascertain their credibility and utility in working with clients. This article presents the obstacles to acquiring critical thinking skills, as well as different strategies that can be utilized by educators to enhance its development and active usage. A theoretical construct and cognitive schema of learning describe the mechanisms of constructing meanings from experiences and advancing to critically assessing broader concepts. In this context, the importance of being introduced to new, empirically-based knowledge and critical thinking in substance abuse courses and practice is discussed, followed by an evaluation of students' advancing critical thinking skills.     

社会管理创新背景下高职社会工作专业生产性实训模式的创新研究﹡

在社会管理创新背景下,就政府、企业、NGO、普通公民等社会主体参与社会的创新做法及高职社会工作专业人才培养的特点,提出了几点社会工作专业生产性实训创新模式,这些校本实践模式正是依托“利益相关者”理论整合了各方资源,更好地解决了社会工作专业实践教学的难题,能为其他相关专业提供借鉴,并能为高职管理创新提供契机。     

Where’s the Community Practice? Gaps in Community Practice Education in a Clinical-Community Social Work Program

Although the profession of social work has a rich history of supporting community organizing and engagement efforts, there has been a trend toward educational programs that focus heavily on the clinical components of social work. The purpose of this study was to perform an exploratory investigation of the potential need for more community-centered educational content at a school of social work in the Gulf Coast, which advertises itself as offering a clinical-community practice program. Researchers developed and administered a questionnaire to all current students of the School of Social Work to evaluate the program’s efforts to provide a balanced clinical-community practice education. Student responses to the questionnaire suggested that the community practice learning opportunities at the school were not represented equally in quality or quantity to the clinical material. Students reported limited access to field placements that focused on community practice. The researchers suggest that the results of this study are reflective of a potential national trend in social work education toward a narrower focus on clinical practice, and away from its roots in community organizing and advocacy.     

Re-inventing researcher identity: when the individual interacts with the contextual power dynamics

This article is about being and becoming a qualitative researcher in Turkey, a context with a distinctive quantitative tradition shaped by the post-positivist paradigm where qualitative research has not yet reached the mature stage it enjoys elsewhere. Exploring the challenges of swimming against the tide unattended and keeping going, it argues learning to do research is more about crafting an identity than it is about learning a set of tools and techniques. Rather, it is a process largely influenced by the context in which the researcher’s identity is shaped, one that is characterized by power dynamics and identity negotiations. These issues are largely neglected in the literature.     

Factors Influencing M.S.W. Students' Interest in Clinical Practice

This study utilizes linear and log‐linear stochastic models to examine the impact that a variety of variables (including graduate education) have on M.S.W. students' desires to work in clinical practice. Data was collected biannually (between 1992 and 1998) from a complete population sample of all students entering and exiting accredited graduate programs of social work in California (n = 5,793). The influences of past practice experiences, professional motivations, socio‐demographic characteristics, ideological affiliations, and education and training experiences while a graduate students were all examined. Findings suggest that there is tremendous commonality in the variability of interest toward doing clinical practice among all student groups both before and after the completion of graduate studies. Male and female students, students of varied ethnic, social class and political identifications/affiliations, along with students of varied ages did not differ in their desire or interest to engage in clinical practice. The desire to prepare for private practice had the strongest influence—that was maintained over the course of their education—on students' interests in clinical social work. Desires to work with the poor were not associated with students' desires to be clinicians who wish to apply their trade across a wide variety of problems and populations.     

Teaching MSW Social Work Practice in a Blended Online Learning Environment

Blended learning is a newly emerging trend in higher education and is defined as the purposeful integration of synchronous and asynchronous learning to provide educational activities that maximize the benefits of each. This paper describes the development of a graduate social work foundation-year practice class in a blended online environment in which both asynchronous and synchronous activities transpire online. The course's underlying pedagogical principles are illustrated, and the perceptions of instructional faculty are reported in key areas, including engagement and participation, activities, and the challenges of technology, socialization, etiquette, and nonverbal cues.     

高校“网格化”社会工作实务教学模式初探

社会工作在我国属于新兴学科,自开始招生至今仅20余年。这期间,社会工作教育者们从未停止对社会工作实务教学的探索,但至今依然是教学难点,社会工作的教师身兼督导和教学双重任务往往会顾此失彼。基于此,找到一个适合于目前社会工作实务教学的场所和模式便十分重要。本文将高校作为社会工作实务教学的场所,社会工作专业学生的实务课程在教师的指导下展开,提供适当的社会工作服务以解决学生群体中存在的诸多问题,同时实现实务教学的要求。在高校实施社会工作实务教学,＂网格化＂是一种比较理想的模式。     

Student Assessment of Self-Efficacy and Practice Readiness Following Simulated Instruction in an Undergraduate Social Work Program

ABSTRACT

The use of simulated instruction is a growing trend in social work education. This study examined the effectiveness of simulated instruction with undergraduate social work students. In this mixed methods study, the extent to which simulated instruction improved self-efficacy and practice readiness was assessed. Results of the study suggest that simulated instruction helps improve key practice skills and increases recognition of diversity in practice. Moreover, students self-reported increased mastery in interviewing, managing emotions, and engaging in culturally competent practice.     

Student Writing in Social Work

Social work professors are frequently disappointed with the writing their students produce bumt feel unsure about how improvements can be made. Unfortunately, the social work literature does not shed much light on the problem of student writing. This exploratory study suggests a model that established a rationale for writing improvement, provides writing opportunities within non-threatening classroom environments, helps students during the writing process, and promotes explicit grading criteria. Preliminary findings suggest that with this model students may lower their writing anxiety, and professors could spend less time grading papers.     

Empowering Students in a Feminist Social Work Practice Course

Abstract

Since 1993, a faculty collective has team-taught a feminist social work practice course. The course, designed to heighten student knowledge of feminist practice, was expected to empower students. An overview of the course is presented with an analysis of its impact on student perceptions of personal and professional power. Pre and post measures of empowerment were analyzed and used to derive outcome measures of change in student views of themselves as empowered persons and practitioners. Findings indicate that students had significantly higher perceptions of their personal and professional power upon completion of the feminist practice course than before. Implications for social work students and practitioners are discussed.     

高职社会工作专业实务课程的任务驱动型教学模式研究——以个案工作实务为例

探索在个案工作实务课中进行任务驱动型教学模式改革,呼应高职教育的职业导向定位,同时为社会工作专业教育加强实践教学,切实提升学生的实际服务能力开拓思路。从任务驱动型教学模式在个案工作实务课中的操作要点、操作过程、注意事项三个方面对此进行了详解。