Being Known in Undergraduate Social Work Education: The Role of Instructors in Fostering Student Engagement and Motivation

Most undergraduate students pursue a social work major because of their desire to help others. Students tend to be more interested in doing than in understanding the research and knowledge of the profession and the complexities of social work practice. Instructors are often faced with the challenge of enhancing student motivation to learn challenging course material. This study explored student perceptions of instructor influences on their motivation and engagement in learning. Through online surveys, students described their experiences of being known and how those experiences affected their participation in practice, research, and human behavior in the social environment courses. Results showed that instructor caring (providing recognition, expressing relational qualities, and responding to students) positively influences student motivation and affective learning by increasing comfort, willingness to ask questions, take risks, and overall participation. Conversely, of those who reported mixed experiences or who felt unknown, most reported a negative impact on their motivation and participation. These findings suggest that social work faculty can influence student motivation and engagement with essential social work curriculum by expressing care and helping students feel known in the classroom.     

Defining Signature Pedagogy in Social Work Education: Learning Theory and the Learning Contract

In 2008 the Council on Social Work Education identified field education as the signature pedagogy of social work. In doing so, it designated field education as the synthetic, integrative curricular area in which students are socialized to the profession. This article examines challenges and opportunities this designation presents. How field education can be designed and delivered as social work education’s signature pedagogy is discussed from a learning theory framework. A learning contract is described that integrates class and field in attainment of the core and advanced competencies. Use of this integrated learning contract by the field instructor and student serves to structure the field experience in a manner consistent with a signature pedagogy. The teaching role of the field instructor is recognized as a key component of the signature pedagogy.     

Teaching Note—MSW Student Perceptions of Learning Advanced Clinical Practice Skills Through the Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom, with its focus on student-centered learning and active student engagement, is a growing trend in social work education. This article presents an innovative way of delivering practice content through the flipped classroom model, which can be adapted for any level of social work education. It walks readers through the steps of developing the course and the successes and challenges of the flip, particularly with an incorporated skills lab component. Additionally, this article shares student reflections on the development and execution of the course, with specific feedback on the experiential learning environment, discussions surrounding instructor workload and preparation, and implications for future iterations of the course from students who had very little prior technologically centered learning experiences.     

Evaluating the Efficacy of Traditional and Web-Assisted Instruction in an Undergraduate Social Work Practice Class

SUMMARY

This article addresses the dearth of research utilizing a quasi-experimental design and student performance measures in assessing web-assisted instruction in social work undergraduate practice courses. Social work students were randomly placed into two sections of a practice course. The experimental section (n = 18) students received 50% of course lectures with web-assisted instruction while the comparison class (n = 18) received identical lectures delivered in traditional face-to-face format. There were no statistically significant differences on assignments, the midterm exam and a final videotaped exam project between the two sections. These results suggest students in an undergraduate social work practice course learn similarly regardless of course format.     

Does self-assessment in a group help students to learn?

'One of the greatest misconceptions about self-assessment is that it can be undertaken in isolation from others' [Boud (1995) Enhanced Learning through Self-assessment (London, Kogan Page), p. 200]. Social work practice - the experience from which we learn in social work education [Boud et al. (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning (London, Kogan Page)] - operates in the context of social relationships. This means that learning develops within its social environment, be it a student group, workshop, team or project. If self-assessment is to be an effective aspect of reflective learning in social work education, then it is important that social work students develop skills in self-assessment in group contexts. This paper charts an exploration of self-assessment in a group setting in order to reach some conclusions about how self-assessment can be encouraged amongst social work students as they carry out group assignments.     

An examination of student and provider perceptions of voluntary sector social work placements in Northern Ireland

Practice based learning in Northern Ireland is a core element of social work education and comprising 50% of the degree programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students. This article presents evidence about the perceptions of practice learning from voluntary sector/non-government organisation (NGO) placement providers and final year social work students on social work degree programmes in Northern Ireland in 2011. It draws on data from 121 respondents from189 final year students and focus group interviews with voluntary sector providers offering 16% (85) of the total placements available to students. The agencies who participated in the research study provide a total of 55 PLOs to social work students, and are therefore fairly representative in terms of voluntary sector (NGO) provision. The article locates these data in the context of practice learning pedagogy and the changes introduced by the Regional Strategy for Practice Learning Provision in Northern Ireland 2010–2015. Several themes emerged including; induction, support and guidance, practice educator/student relationship, professional identity and confidence in risk assessment and decision-making. Social work educators, placement providers and employers must be cognisant of newly qualified social workers’ needs in terms of consolidating knowledge within the formative stages of their professional development.     

Field education in crisis: experiences of field education coordinators in Canada

Significant multi-layered challenges with delivering quality practicum experiences to social work students have led field education coordinators to release a joint statement that social work field education in Canada is in a state of crisis. This article presents the results of a two-year mixed methods study that sought to investigate and describe the challenges in order to enhance understanding of the crisis from the perspective of Canadian social work field education coordinators. The results indicate that social work education programs in Canada face four key challenges in regard to field education that can be further divided into two sections: (a) the social work practice field and (b) social work field education administration. The two key challenges associated with the social work practice field are: (a) social work practice contexts and realities and (b) practicum shortages and saturation. The two key challenges associated with social work field education administration are: (a) practicum procurement and field instructor recruitment and retention; and (b) expectations and workloads of field education coordinators. To address these challenges, collaborative development of a multi-level strategy aimed at moving beyond the current state of crisis toward a sustainable model of social work field education in Canada is recommended.     

Teaching self-care: The utilization of self-care in social work practicum to prevent compassion fatigue,burnout, and vicarious trauma

ABSTRACT

Field practicum is paramount to social work pedagogy in the preparation of emerging direct practice professionals. Field students integrate foundational knowledge as they implement practice skills learned in the classroom during the social work practicum experience. Working with clients who are suffering is inevitable in direct social work practice and field practicum students can be exposed to a broad range of intense emotional experiences as they assist clients in need. Integrating self-care skills, techniques and strategies into daily social work practice becomes essential to prevent compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma. Incorporating self-care skills into the field practicum enhances opportunities for transformative student learning and helps to strengthen professional socialization during this critical educational experience. This article highlights the implementation of professional self-care instruction, use of activities and written student critical reflection assignments designed to enhance the practice experience through incorporating self-care education and strategies among undergraduate students within the field practicum seminar.     

The Implicit Curriculum: Student Engagement and the Role of Social Media

This article presents results from an exploratory study conducted as a component of an assessment of the implicit curriculum in one master’s-level social work program. Web-based surveys were used to collect data from 80 graduate social work students in online and face-to-face programs. Findings indicate students who perceived social media as more useful reported higher levels of engagement and participation in program governance. The implications for social work education deal with the ability to competently use social media as a tool to increase student engagement. Students will only be exposed to elements of the implicit curriculum if they are active participants in their academic environments.     

Resisting Neoliberalism from within the Academy: Subversion through an Activist Pedagogy

Teaching and learning in the neoliberal academy means that educators in non-market-oriented departments, such as social work, face several constraints and challenges when trying to implement an anti-oppressive, social justice focused curriculum. This article considers challenges that can arise with an introductory social work course in the current context of neoliberalism, especially when open to both social work and non-social work students. With a particular focus on larger class sizes, the use of precarious labour and the depoliticization of the classroom, the authors use an inductive, reflective approach to analyse observations made about shifts in the behaviour and engagement of students in the course. The authors surmise possible explanations for these shifts, considering changes made to the substantive content and pedagogical practices of the course. Through this process the authors propose that these changes represent an ‘activist pedagogy’ which may offer potential for anti-oppressive education with students both inside and outside social work. As such, the authors propose ‘activist pedagogy’ as a possible way to resist and subvert the neoliberal educational paradigm and to better integrate the principles and practices of social justice and anti-oppressive social work into the classroom.     

Assessing the Development of Cultural Proficiency Among Upper-Level Social Work Students

Graduate social work pedagogy is challenging to diverse faculty and students who work with diverse clients, often in international practice. We discuss the development, outcomes, and assessment of an assignment designed to stimulate students’ research on proverbs as cultural resources for practice and to promote attainment of six competencies related to diversity and social justice of the Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. We used procedures from grounded theory and Atlas.ti to analyze 40 student papers. More than 70% of papers reflected students’ mastery of three competencies, suggesting the assignment was insufficient to ensure attainment of all six competencies and signaling errors in the structure of the assignment and in the rubric. Ensuring students’ achievement of the competencies requires careful design and assessment of assignments and deliberate, structured assessment of the assignment outcomes.     

Planned Change and Contract Negotiation as an Instructional Model

To facilitate integration of the concepts of a purposeful planned change process and contract negotiation as integral parts of social work practice, a teaching model was developed whereby students were asked to design and implement a change process through the use of contracts with the instructor. The student as client system established change goals appropriate to beginning practice experience, negotiated a contract to reach these goals, and engaged in a change relationship with the instructor as change agent.

The use of this teaching model gave clear indication of students' understanding and integration of the planned change process and components of contracting for actual implementation in practice efforts.     

Strengthening youth participation in civic engagement: Applying the Convention on the Rights of the Child to social work practice

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) provides a framework for strengthening youth participation in civic engagement, especially within the field of social work. Through a review of peer-reviewed social work literature over the last decade, this paper explores the central question: How does the CRC shape social work scholarship about youth participation in civic engagement? We find that the CRC is reflected in scholarship' outside of the U.S., while U.S. social work scholarship rarely draws on the CRC and concepts related to child rights. This results in qualitative differences between youth civic engagement scholarship in countries where the CRC has been ratified and scholarship in the U.S., with divergent research and practice models for working with youth. Non-U.S. social work literature offers framing, perspectives, and practice examples that can be of value for positioning youth civic engagement within U.S. social work practice. We discuss the implications of the CRC for youth participation in civic engagement in the U.S. and explore potential future directions for research and practice.     

Editorial

This paper questions whether it is possible that current policy and guidelines could ever effect a significant shift in education of social work students. There are several issues which need to be appreciated if social work education is to become anything more than an induction to a technical craft. These issues include debate on the nature of theory and reflective practice and on pedagogy and curriculum. Rather than understand theory and reflective practice in the applied technicist sense what is required is an understanding and appreciation of moral practical deliberation—what scholars of the virtues refer to as phronesis. Debate on pedagogy has stopped short of tackling important issues which find succour in technicist and managerialist accounts of practice. As such, any idea that practice experience will improve the practice of student social workers is questionable.     

Social Work Student Learning Experiences of Family Therapy: Improving Competency in Pedagogy Through Qualitative Research

The purpose of this qualitative study is to evaluate graduate social work student experiences of pedagogy intended to improve competency in family therapy practice. Students from two classes (N = 37) completed open‐ended surveys assessing: perceptions of most helpful pedagogical practices; understanding of needed competencies; and perceived opportunities offered to them during their graduate training for learning about work with couples and families. Results, analysed using grounded theory methodology, revealed that students: (1) believed that experiential activities were especially critical for learning how to do clinical practice with couples and families; (2) understood important competencies related to professional development, therapeutic engagement with the family, and how to approach family practice; and (3) believed they were ‘somewhat prepared’ for practice. Implications include improving understanding of abstract skills in practice with couples and families, and emphasising relationship dynamics more in graduate social work education and training.     

TEACHING NOTES: MAKING STATISTICS "REAL" FOR SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS

This article presents results from an evaluation of service learning in statistics courses for master of social work students. The article provides an overview of the application of a community-based statistics project, describes student feedback regarding the project, and illustrates some strengths and limitations of using this pedagogy with social work statistics courses. Student evaluations (N=38) suggest that implementing a service-learning pedagogy allows students to master basic statistical analysis skills and see practical applications for statistics. Such an approach also provides myriad benefits for faculty, although incorporating service learning into a statistics course can present specific challenges.     

Talking about emotion: how are conversations about emotion enabled in the context of social work practice education?

It is widely acknowledged that emotion is a potent force in social work practice and practice education which can have a significant impact on both practice and practitioner experience. So too, is the recognition that social work students may face higher levels of stress than their qualified colleagues—social work itself, one of the professions where workers often experience higher levels of emotional demand than do other occupational groups. In terms of professional training courses for students entering the ‘helping professions’, there is a visible theme of heightened student pressure that relates, in some way, to the practicum aspect of their qualifying course. Relatedly, there is a clear consensus that the quality of the student-Practice Educator relationship is a key determinant of student learning and student experience. This article presents the findings of a small-scale qualitative research study, investigating how conversations about emotion are enabled within supervision, from a sample of final year qualifying students (n = 4) and Practice Educators (n = 5). It intends to make a contribution to the literature concerned with the development of good practice in this area, with a particular focus on the facilitative approaches of Practice Educators and the preparation of students for professional practice.     

Role of rural camps in nurturing field practicum: narrative from a faculty of social work,Delhi, India

Rural camps are an integral part of practice learning for most schools of social work in India. The paper locates the relevance of rural camps in social work education and unveils its pedagogy and broad learning framework. Based on the experiential account of the author in a rural camp as a teacher educator, the paper situates the role of camps in professional development of social work students and how it enables to bridge the gaps between academic knowledge base and the complex realities of practice. The unique standpoint of the paper is the students’ account of their experiences, challenges faced and its impact on their personal and professional growth.     

Social work leadership: reflections on a student-led conference

Servant leadership encompassing collaborative mentorship, empowerment and a faculty/student partnership approach contributed to the success of an international social work conference led by undergraduate students and supported by faculty members. Using a retrospective case study design, data were collected from social work undergraduate students on the conference planning committee, reflections of faculty, and documentation from conference evaluations. This paper explores the findings of the conference planning experience and considers how social work principles can foster student engagement and build capacity for undergraduate students to practice leadership skills within higher educational settings.