Learning by doing: an experiential approach to program evaluation

Despite the increased importance of producing social workers who are prepared to evaluate practice, there is a paucity of literature addressing the pedagogical challenges of program evaluation courses. The present study evaluates the structure and pedagogical approach of a newly implemented program evaluation course. The course took a team-based, experiential learning approach to designing a program evaluation plan for students’ field placement agencies. Five student-led focus groups (N = 44) were conducted at the conclusion of the course to address two aims: to assess student perceptions of the content, structure, and delivery of the course; and to assess student attitudes toward applied research. Data were collected between November and December 2014 in a public university’s graduate social work program in the northeastern United States. The steps of grounded theory data analysis were implemented to elicit major themes from student feedback. Results suggest that perceptions of applicability play a central role in shaping student attitudes toward program evaluation. Experiential and team-based pedagogical approaches appear to increase accessibility of course content for students. Suggestions for enhancing student learning in program evaluation courses are discussed.     

Toward the Tailoring of Sexual Health Education Messages for Young Women: A Focus on Tourist Experiences

Perceived anonymity and decreased influence of sexual double standards in tourism provide female travelers with opportunities for sexual experimentation and risk taking. The purpose of this study was (a) to identify the clusters of risk takers among young women based on their perceptions of and motivations for sexual risk taking in tourism and (b) to profile the clusters with respect to the psychological, sexual, demographic, and tourist characteristics. The data were collected through an online survey of 853 women (age in years: M = 23.5, SD = 6.67). Five clusters of sexual risk takers emerged based on their factor-analyzed risk perceptions and motivations. These clusters were interpreted as (a) diversely motivated broad risk perceivers; (b) fun-seeking broad risk perceivers; (c) diversely motivated physical risk perceivers; (d) anonymity- and empowerment-seeking risk disregarders; and (e) unmotivated broad risk perceivers. Women in these clusters differed in their intentions to engage in sexual risk taking in tourism, sensation-seeking propensities, perceptions of tourist characteristics, levels of sexual experience, and demographic backgrounds. Results suggest tailoring sexual health promotion messages based on cluster affiliation, leveraging cluster-specific risk perceptions, motivations, and personal characteristics. This study provides recommendations for individually tailored, context-specific, age-appropriate, and gender-sensitive sexual health education programs.     

Social Work Educators' Views and Experiences of Grow Your Own Qualifying Programmes in England

Little is known about the impact on social work educators and social work programmes of employer sponsorship of social work students through secondment or traineeship schemes, often referred to as Grow Your Own (GYO) schemes. This article reports on social work educators' views of sponsorship, the effects on their activities and the dynamics of mixed student cohorts. The study took place in England during 2007–2009 and comprised a review of the literature, interviews with a range of social work educators (n = 23), GYO students (n = 35), and employers (n = 27), and the production of a good practice guide based on stakeholder contributions. Social work educators reported that GYO activity may enhance and enrich social work programmes. They valued secured and guaranteed practice placements, considered that employer-sponsored students enriched the total student cohort, facilitated an expansion of student numbers, and strengthened partnerships with local employers. A further advantage was that GYO benefited the teaching programme overall with more robust employer/university relationships. Social work educators reported that such schemes required careful management and investment of time and might lead to some tensions about the balance between education and training. These findings are placed in the context of developments in social work education in England.     

The Blame Index: Exploring the Change in Social Work Students’ Perceptions of Poverty

ABSTRACT

This study reports the development of a new Blame Index to determine attributions of the causes of poverty along a single structural-to-individual dimension. A multisite pre-/post-group design tested the degree of change in social work students’ (N = 177) perception of poverty as a result of taking a single BSW social policy course or an MSW foundation social policy course. Student respondents reported a significant shift toward structural and away from individual attribution of the causes of poverty, more support for government antipoverty benefit programs, increased awareness of the inadequacy of existing government antipoverty programs, and increased awareness of the difficulty in accessing government antipoverty benefits. Linear regression explained 17% of the change in the Blame Index with only race/ethnicity and the change in adequacy of benefits as significant predictors.     

A Pilot Study Evaluating Students' Interest in International Social Work Education

International social work (ISW) has gained traction across the USA with a number of schools taking the lead in promoting the values of social work through exchange programs, service learning, and volunteerism. The internalization of campus through the proactive action of institutions to incorporate global perspectives into teaching, learning, and research in order to build intercultural competence among students, faculty, and staff has received little attention. This paper assesses the level of interest of social work students at a large urban university in the southwestern USA in embracing ISW and how they conceptualized their learning needs. Using a self-administered web-based survey offered to a total of 1,500 social work students with 18% respondent rate, the research determined through a chi-square test that students in Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work, and PhD programs had a significant difference in preferences in areas of interests (χ² = 153, p ≤ 0.000). Overall, students demonstrated interest in direct practice (74.3%) and community and administrative practice (16.6%). Students also differed in their level of interest in participating in international exchange programs (χ² = 9.6, p = 0.047). Discussions address specific and unique interests categorized broadly as ‘globalized social worker,’ ‘humanitarian social worker,’ and ‘policy social worker,’ each of which requires specific skillsets and advanced behavior skills.     

Creation and evaluation of a maternal mental health course

Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) engender significant and increasing personal, social, developmental, and economic burdens to women, children, families, and global public health. In the US, a Master of Social Work (MSW) elective course, Introduction to Maternal Mental Health, was created to prepare future social workers to better understand, detect, intervene, and advocate with women struggling with perinatal mental health concerns. A pilot study used pre–post-surveys (N = 10) and a focus group to examine students’ knowledge acquisition, course satisfaction, and perceived self-efficacy. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-survey course content knowledge scores. Positive focus group feedback and survey outcomes suggest that students benefitted from the course in terms of increased learning and professional efficacy in maternal mental health; however, the study should be replicated using a larger sample and comparison group. The course outline provided may be used to develop a similar course or to infuse maternal mental health content into existing courses. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations for social work educators.     

Social work students’ perceptions of obesity

Research indicates that mental health and medical professionals often hold negative views of overweight or obese people. Little is known about weight prejudice among social work students. In order to address this gap in the literature, this study examines the attitudes of Bachelor of social work and Master of social work students (n = 250) toward persons who are overweight and/or obese. Consistent with the literature, findings indicate generally those with higher body mass index scores are more likely to believe that obesity is beyond their control. Further, although age was correlated with Beliefs About Obese People scores, it was not a significant predictor. Implications for social work social justice and cultural competency curriculum are discussed.     

Brief mindfulness training in the social work practice classroom

Social Work educators are increasingly concerned with discerning how to help students develop the affective, relational, and meta-cognitive skills needed for effective, resilient, and sustainable social work practice. A small but growing literature supports mindfulness training as a path to those ends. However, most mindfulness intervention studies, even those mentioning ‘brief intervention,’ have typically used fairly lengthy training programs, often 2–3 h per week for 6–8 weeks. It is unlikely that already over-committed social work practice classes would devote this amount of class time to these strategies. This concurrent mixed methods study examined whether very brief mindfulness training in undergraduate social work practice classes (100 min over the course of a 3.0 semester credit hour course) would influence outcomes on measures of mindfulness, emotional regulation, and empathy, as well as student perceptions of helpfulness in managing stress and meeting course goals. No significant differences were found on quantitative measures at post-test. However, results of the qualitative analysis suggest that even brief mindfulness exercises in social work practice classes are perceived by students as helpful for managing anxiety, staying present-focused with clients, reducing premature judgment, and feeling safe and connected in the classroom. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Exploring graduate students’ perceptions about social work licensing

Social work practice is regulated in all the 50 USA, 10 Canadian Provinces, Great Britain, and Australia, to name a few. Though practitioners, educators, and researchers are increasingly attentive to regulatory dynamics, there remains a dearth in the literature related to social work licensing, specifically within the context of social work education. This exploratory study examined the US graduate social work students’ (N = 223) general knowledge and perceptions about social work licensing. Data suggest that though students value and have a desire to be licensed, some ambiguity and ambivalence persist around the topic. This paper explicates key findings and discusses implications derived from this study.     

Assessors

The application of technology, such as interactive digital whiteboards, in the online environment of higher education, is growing at an accelerated pace. Much is known about the tools used in an on-ground course to promote student engagement, but the literature is scant on tools to promote student engagement in the online environment. The purpose of this study is to explore qualitative data from students on faculty efforts to promote student engagement through leveraged digital whiteboard technology. A qualitative review of feedback from graduate students (n = 81) qualitative responses from open-ended questions and follow up online focus group sessions (n = 9) indicate that this technology can be useful to promote a sense of social engagement among students. It is expected that this knowledge will help instructors to better understand what promotes student engagement in an online graduate social work cohort. This learning tool can be used to promote further engagement in future assignments.     

Investigating the self-care practices of social work faculty: an exploratory study

Being a social work faculty member in academe can be challenging. Evidence suggests that faculty members, in general, experience high levels of stress and occupational burnout. Furthermore, harassment, bullying, and mobbing are commonplace. These problematic circumstances may be compounded for females, junior faculty, and under-represented (e.g. peoples of color) faculty groups. Engaging in adroit self-care practices is one way to assuage these problematic employment circumstances. Yet, there is a dearth in the literature that examines self-care practices among social work educators. This exploratory study examined the self-care practices of social work faculty (N = 124) at Council on Social Work Education accredited institutions in one southeastern state in the United States. Overall, data suggest that social work faculty do engage in adequate self-care practices, when compared to studies of general social work practitioners. Data also suggest differences in self-care by academic rank and professional licensing. After a brief review of literature, this paper will explicate results and identify salient discussion points and implications for social work education. This is the first paper known to the authors to explore self-care among social work faculty.     

Development,Implementation, and Evaluation of a Comprehensive Course on Suicide in a Master’s of Social Work Program

ABSTRACT

Most master of social work (MSW) programs provide minimal education or training on suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention despite that the majority of social workers encounter suicidal clients during their professional careers. This study describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a course on suicide in an MSW program. Changes in student suicide-related knowledge, confidence, and preparedness were evaluated using a pre/post design. We found statistically significant increases in knowledge (t [df = 21] = 4.79; p < .001), confidence (t [df = 17] = 8.55; p < .001), and preparedness (t [df = 20] = 7.28; p < .001) from pretest to posttest. Knowledge, confidence, and preparedness were significantly positively correlated, indicating that confidence and preparedness did not increase without a corresponding increase in knowledge. Given the prevalence of suicide and the frequency with which social workers serve populations affected by suicide, it is critical that MSW programs provide effective training on understanding suicide.     

Sociosexuality,Commitment, Sexual Infidelity,and Perceptions of Infidelity: Data From the Second Love Web Site

This study explored the association between sociosexuality (behavior, attitudes, and desire) and commitment to understand sexual infidelity in current relationships. We also explored how these variables were associated with attitudes toward infidelity. Participants were romantically involved heterosexuals (N = 252; 51 women, 201 men; M_age = 41.13, SD = 9.82) registered on a dating Web site directed at romantically involved individuals. Results showed that sociosexuality, alongside commitment, was associated with sexual infidelity. Individuals who had (versus had not) previously engaged in infidelity reported more unrestricted sociosexuality, while reporting less commitment. For individuals reporting prior sexual infidelity, unrestricted sociosexual desire and lesser commitment were associated with more permissive perceptions of infidelity. For individuals reporting no prior sexual infidelity, greater commitment was always associated with more strict perceptions of infidelity. No gender differences emerged in the analyses. Also, no differences were found according to individual motivations (i.e., looking to know other people versus seeking casual sex) or relational motivations (i.e., individual registration versus registration as a couple) underlying individuals’ registration on the Web site. These results are an important addition to the literature on infidelity by analyzing a specific sample motivated to engage in infidelity. Implications for future research are discussed.     

A Review of Social Justice and Diversity Content in Diversity Course Syllabi

Given United State's leading position among international social work organizations, it is important that its standards of practice for diversity in social work education are examined. Using a nationwide sample of syllabi (N = 174) in the United States, the purpose of this study is to measure the extent to which various facets of diversity and social justice are incorporated into social work course syllabi. The study further assesses whether social justice content is integrated into diversity courses according to the Council on Social Work Education's 2001 and 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). The goal is to better understand program adherence to diversity objects designed for social work education curriculum. An examination of course titles, syllabi content, and course objectives revealed a broad array of identified topics; however, terms such as culture/multicultural (79.2%), race (71.7%), diversity (68.2%), ethnicity (63.6%), gender (60.1%), oppression (57.8%), and gay/lesbian (56.1%) were addressed with greater frequency across all syllabi. In an assessment of adherence to 2001 and 2008 EPAS among syllabi, interrater agreement with the use of Kappa revealed modest agreement. Greater transparency in connecting EPAS with diversity course syllabi is an important step in the requirement to improve capability across programs. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Evaluating a Measure of ‘Social Orientation’ of Chinese Students in Social Work: Developing its Reliability and Validity

This study examines the reliability and validity of a measure of ‘social orientation’ indigenously developed from Chinese students of social work in Hong Kong. By administering two tests with Chinese social work students (n = 293 and n = 304) at associate degree level, the measure achieves strong internal consistency with r>0.75 and test–retest consistency with r>0.63. The instrument also has strong validity by attempting factor analysis of items generated from qualitative data in in‐depth interviews. The development of this indigenous measure of ‘social orientation’ will contribute to an understanding of the authoritarian, relationship and ‘other’ orientation of Chinese social work students. The authors propose that this will be a crucial factor in influencing the response of Chinese students towards different teaching and learning approaches in social work education.     

“What’s on Your Mind?” Examining the Influence of Facebook User Motivations,Usage Intensity,and Public Self-Disclosure on Perceived Social Capital

ABSTRACT

This study examines the influence of user motivations and behaviors on perceptions of mutually beneficial social resources accessible via connections formed and maintained on Facebook. Survey data collected from undergraduate Facebook users were used to construct a multiple-group structural equation model of male (n = 109) and female (n = 187) users to assess the effects of motivations, usage intensity, and general public self-disclosure on users’ perceptions of bridging and bonding social capital. Results indicate that status and relationship formation motivations directly affect both dimensions of social capital for all users. Formation motivation was found to positively affect public self-disclosure for male users, and usage intensity was found to mediate the positive effect of user motivations on public self-disclosure for both groups. General self-disclosure on public Facebook profiles was found to positively affect perceived bridging capital and mediated the effect of formation motivation on bridging capital only for male users, while public self-disclosure was not found to significantly predict either dimension of social capital among female users. Findings are discussed within the theoretical framework of social capital and the hyperpersonal model of computer-mediated communication, and directions for future research are proposed.     

Teaching pedagogies enhancing social work students’ perceptions and attitudes toward older age in an undergraduate course on working with older people

Approximately threefold increases in older age population groups (+65 years) are projected in the next 15 years. Demographic changes in society will mean greater numbers of older adults in proportion to the younger generation. In the current policy on older age groups, emphasis is placed on healthy aging warranting a multidisciplinary workforce to work with older people. Despite this need and increased demand in the aged care sector, a fewer social work students are willing to undertake aged care placements or to choose it as a career option.

An innovative teaching and learning pedagogy was used in designing the course curriculum titled ‘Social Work with Older People’, including the input of invited specialist guest speakers, an on-campus interactive workshop with older guests, and an assessment designed to evaluate the learning related to the workshop content. The paper reports changes in the attitudes of students studying gerontological social work after the course delivery, evaluated through an online survey with the purpose of improving the learning outcomes in the course and to gauge students’ interest, experiences, attitudes and motivation to work in the aged care sector. The paper contributes to building knowledge in addressing the needs of the changing social demographic.     

Experiences of Urban Environmental Conditions in Socially and Economically Diverse Neighborhoods

Environmental conditions can vary widely in urban areas. Temperature, green space, air quality, and other parameters may have different patterns among and within cities. These conditions may also be experienced and perceived by residents in different ways, with implications for community development and social justice in the context of environmental change. This study examines in-depth interviews (N = 20) with residents from socially and economically diverse neighborhoods to understand this variability at a more meaningful scale than typically examined in the literature. Implications for social work, community development, and multidisciplinary efforts in the pressing area of environmental change are discussed.     

The Nature and Extent of Substance Use Education in Qualifying Social Work Programmes in England

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is a common feature of modern social work practice. Concerns about the problematic use of such substances cross all areas of social work practice, including adults' and children's social care. In England, surveys have highlighted social workers' experiences of AOD education during their qualifying social work training. However, this study sought the perspectives of the social work educators. Its primary aim was to explore the nature and extent of education on AODs on the qualifying social work programmes in England. Using an online survey tool, all qualifying social work programme leads were invited to take part (n = 157). Fewer than half responded (40%, n = 63). Initial findings appeared positive suggesting that 94% of responding qualifying programmes provided some teaching and learning on AODs. Further analysis revealed significant variation in what is taught and the depth of coverage. It highlighted a lack of consistency across programmes and possible over-reporting. However, the majority of respondents felt that teaching and learning on AOD use should be a higher priority for their qualifying social work programmes.