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.     

Book reviews

This article reviews the development of an experiential learning exercise at Kingston University, designed to involve service users and carers in assessing students' readiness to practise. The new social work degree places increased emphasis on practice learning and equipping social workers with the knowledge, skills and tools for the job. This article draws out some of the strengths and advantages of involving ‘experts by experience’ in helping students to develop awareness of self, their impact on others and effective communication skills, ultimately promoting an understanding of reflective practice early in their training. It also acknowledges some of the problems and dilemmas in providing an equitable experience for all students. The students are provided with this learning/assessment experience as part of a module in the first year of the undergraduate social work degree programme and have to pass this element of the module, in addition to the academic component, in order to progress to level two.

The terms ‘service users’ and ‘carers’ and ‘experts by experience’ are used interchangeably in this article. The Steering Group at Kingston University, involved in the development of the exercise discussed, are aware of the power and impact of language and have expressed preference to being referred to as ‘experts by experience’.     

Reflective Practice: An Exercise in Exploring Inner Dialogue and Vertical Polyphony

The dialogical notion of vertical polyphony, referring to multiple internal voices, is explored in relation to clinicians’ professional and personal selves. We describe an experiential training exercise developed to enhance clinicians’ awareness and understanding of their inner dialogue, and create space to practice what Schön terms ‘reflecting‐in‐action’ and ‘knowing‐in‐action.’ The exercise involves stages of personal reflection, discussion in groups of two or three, and shared learning by the group. A number of variations of the exercise are described. The invited commentaries following the article provide a sense of participants’ reactions to the exercises. Readers are invited to adapt the exercise to suit their own setting and to enhance reflective practice.     

The Process of Personal Transformation for Adolescents Practicing Mindfulness Skills in an Alternative School Setting

This qualitative study examined the experiences of alternative school students as they participated in a mindfulness skills program. A 7-month school-based mindfulness skills program was integrated into the Grade 10 curriculum for high school students (N = 19; 10 boys and 9 girls, ages 15–17). Students engaged in mindfulness practices twice weekly during class time. Students practiced breath awareness, and seated, walking, and lying mindfulness meditation during the course of the program. Students completed initial and final questionnaires about their experiences as well as written journal entries based on their experiences in the program. At the completion of the program, 14 of the 19 program completers were interviewed (6 boys and 8 girls). Data analysis yielded two broad areas of perceived benefits of participation in the mindfulness skills program: intrapersonal benefits and interpersonal benefits. Intrapersonal benefits included themes of self-awareness and self-regulation (including cognition, emotions, and behavior). Interpersonal benefits included themes of building relationships (with peers, family members, and teachers) and learning to trust. These findings may be useful when planning school-based mindfulness programs and may serve as a guide for researchers studying mindfulness practices for youth.     

‘Back to our Roots?’ Re-visiting psychoanalytically-informed baby and young child observation in the education of student social workers

While there is a well-established literature on psychoanalytically-informed baby and young child observation in social work education, little has been published recently. This paper reviews the rationale for its use, evaluating its impact on students’ learning in the light of contemporary policy and practice contexts facing social work education. Analysis of feedback gained from a recent cohort, identifies three ways in which learning through baby and young child observation contributes: firstly, students encounter and learn about the complexity of child development from the direct experience of observing and secondly, observing facilitates the development of important skills for practice; students’ ‘use of self’. Thirdly, through observing, students describe how they develop the capacity to take-up and sustain a professional role. Well-structured teaching and learning through observation is therefore shown to provide a rigorous, theoretically-grounded contribution to the training of university-based social work students entering this complex and challenging professional field.     

What do we know the experiences and outcomes of anti-racist social work education? An empirical case study evidencing contested engagement and transformative learning

ABSTRACT

In social work education there have been very few attempts to empirically capture and measure how professional training programmes prepare students to work with ‘race’ equality and cultural diversity issues. This paper interrogates the experiences and outcomes of anti-racist social work education and evaluates the pedagogic relevance and practice utility of teaching social work students about ‘race’, racism and anti-racism. The data presented in this paper suggests that it is possible to discover the situated experiences of learning about anti-racism and measure how this teaching can affect and lead to knowledge, skills and attitudinal change. The triangulated mixed methods evidence presented in this paper combines nomothetic and idiographic approaches with quantitative data for a matched pair sample of 36 social work students and uses non-parametric statistical tests to measure at two time intervals (before and after teaching); knowledge, skills and attitudinal change. The paper explores how anti-racist social work education enables students to move from ‘magical consciousness’, where racism and racial oppression is invisible and thereby left unchallenged and maintained, to more critical and reflexive level of awareness where it is named, challenged and no longer shrouded in a culture of professional denial and silencing.     

Mindfulness: The Present Moment in Clinical Social Work

Mindfulness-based psychotherapies are increasingly found in the evidence-based practice realm of clinical social work. This paper provides an understanding of the concept of mindfulness as well as the research into the neurological and behavioral benefits of mindfulness skills training. Mindfulness skills training is explored as both the foundation of specific therapy protocols and as a method to foster clinician attention, affect regulation, attunement and empathy. Clinical case examples are provided to demonstrate the impact of mindfulness skills training on both clients and on the helping relationship.     

The Use of Mindfulness Training to Create an ‘Accompanying Place’ for Social Work Students

Social work students experience emotional stress while having to perform and meet expectations from both academy and field. They may often feel physically and emotionally overwhelmed while struggling to make the time and space to fully process the varied experiences involved. There seems to be an unmet need for an ‘accompanying place’ where thoughts, feelings and dilemmas can be observed in a non‐evaluative way. Mindfulness has evolved lately as an efficient therapeutic technique in therapy. This paper describes a technique that applies mindfulness meditation in a group format in order to create a broader and richer learning experience that answers students' emotional needs. The group met for eight weeks. Its goals were to enhance self‐awareness and increase emotional support in handling field and academic stressors while experiencing different states of consciousness. Findings show that students were able to acquire new knowledge about themselves, experience autonomy in learning self‐containment and regulation, and gain insights regarding their professional self‐concept. Significance for social work training is discussed.     

A Tale of Two Programmes: Developing Communities of Learning with Practice Partners in Social Work and Humanitarian Studies at Charles Darwin University,Northern Territory,Australia

Online engagement is difficult when teaching complex clinical reasoning skills which are central to developing professionalism in the health and welfare workforce. This paper explores how our team has engaged students in online discussion by introducing research projects brought by our practice partners to the mix of activities completed by students. At Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory, Australia, the social work and humanitarian studies degree-level programmes are delivered in blended mode involving a combination of face-to-face and online learning. Within these modes of delivery students are presented with questions and activities drawn from our practice partners to bring ‘real world relevance’ to learning. Drawing from examples provided by the practice settings in which the students wish to work after they graduate, we have found that this relationship between the academy and practice agency effectively bridges the gap between the worlds of theory and practice for our students. In a community of learning model, students elect to work on local practice partners' projects throughout the semester. This mix of academia working in partnership with frontline social and humanitarian workers brings immediacy to the learning. Opportunities for ‘deep learning’ are facilitated by this partnership approach. The implications for using communities of learning models for engaging students from two professions in online activities are discussed.     

A model for assertive training: Integration of feelings and behavior

The current emphasis in assertive training is based on behavioral and cognitive approaches. In this paper the authors present an approach which explores the interconnectedness of feelings and behavior in the learning of assertive skills. Creatively designed structured exercises are presented as tools used to bring people into contract with themselves, to highlight nonfunctional behavior, and to provide the means to try out and practice new assertive behaviors. The impact of the exercises as a learning vehicle in assertive training is described and discussed.     

The Impact of Experiential Exercises on Communication and Relational Skills in a Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper-Training Program for College Resident Advisors

Abstract

Objective: In an effort to identify students at risk for suicide, many colleges are implementing suicide prevention training for campus gatekeepers. This study evaluated the efficacy of a 3-hour, experiential-based gatekeeper training that included an emphasis on enhancing communication skills and relational connection in addition to the didactic foci of standard gatekeeper training. Participants: Sixty-five college student resident advisors (RAs) were trained with Campus Connect. Methods: The training was dismantled to examine the specific contribution of experiential exercises on training outcomes. Results: Compared to didactic training alone, following participation in experiential exercises RAs’ training outcome scores exhibited additional improvement on the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory–2 and a 14-item self-report measure of self-efficacy for specific suicide- and crisis-related knowledge and skills. Conclusions: In gatekeeper training, experiential exercises emphasizing awareness and empathic responding and practice of these skills contribute to an improvement in crisis response skills above and beyond that of didactic training alone.     

Developing Entrepreneurship in Social Work Through International Education. Reflections on a European Intensive Programme

This paper addresses the issue of introducing training on entrepreneurial skills in social work education and illustrates the opportunities offered for doing so by international courses. It presents a critical reflection on the concept of entrepreneurship in social work based on the case of a European Intensive Programme within the Erasmus scheme. It explores the potential of using active experiential learning methods in an international environment and of creating a situation where participants are confronted with ‘real world’ problems so that they can develop entrepreneurial skills. The paper argues that experiences of this kind provide new stimuli and contribute substantially to developing an entrepreneurial mentality, by which is meant innovative and proactive attitudes as well as skills to develop the resources with which to face social problems in an adverse context.     

Cooperative learning in intercultural education

Implementation of intercultural education implies that teachers command the strategies to use the skills and knowledge that children bring into the classroom, to create opportunities to communicate and cooperate in heterogeneous groups, and to provide equal opportunities to participate in the learning processes which are organised in the classroom. The use of small groups in which students learn together and benefit from each others skills and knowledge is a logical option, but conditions have to be fulfilled on the levels of teachers’ communication and management skills, curriculum and pedagogical climate in order to achieve the aims of ‘doing justice to diversity’ and the provision of equal opportunities to participate.     

Assessing Critical-Analytical Listening Skills in Math and Engineering Students: An Exploratory Inquiry of How Analytical Listening Skills Can Positively Impact Learning

In this article, the researchers discuss the implementation of the Ferrari, Lynch, and Vogel Listening Test (FLVLT) to two STEM areas: Mathematics and Computer Science. The goal of the present study was to assess the improvement in students’ mastery of critical listening skills and how listening can help students to retain information. After students were introduced to the subject matter, two specifically tailored listening assessment tools were designed. Pretests and posttests were then administered in an introductory algebra (n = 29 students) and a network fundamentals course (n = 13 students). These tests were administered approximately four weeks apart. The data show that the FLVLT model is reliable for judging students’ critical listening skills and curricular knowledge. Furthermore, a 12% and 20% improvement in students’ ability to match the content pattern to a spoken message was found. In addition, a correlational analysis suggested that improvement in critical listening skills helped students’ learning.     

Preparing for Practice: An Evaluation of an Undergraduate Social Work ‘Preparation for Practice’ Module

The requirement for social work students to undergo assessed preparation prior to undertaking their first practice placement raises key questions about the type of knowledge and experience that is needed for those at the start of their training. This paper shows the need for social work educators to become re‐engaged in debates about the practice–theory relationship and to explore what is meant by an incremental approach to learning. A Preparation for Practice Learning module which was delivered to a cohort of Level 1 undergraduate social work students at a London university is described and evaluated. The paper highlights the key themes which emerged from the evaluation; these include the importance of work shadowing, observational learning and the centrality of critical reflection in aiding students' personal and professional learning. A discussion of its effectiveness in preparing students for their first practice learning experience follows. It concludes by recommending how students' learning in relation to the nature of social work and the skills required to undertake the role effectively might be addressed within the curriculum. Finally, a Preparation for Practice Learning model based on these findings is proposed.     

Learning to be interprofessional through the use of reflective portfolios?

Learning portfolios are used extensively in health and social care. There is evidence of their value as a tool to consolidate learning although limited information is available regarding their use in social work education. This study explores the use of a portfolio to encourage social work students to reflect on their interprofessional learning (IPL). The portfolio offers a means of demonstrating professionalism concerning knowledge, skills and attitudes in the context of collaborative practice. The findings of this research suggest that qualifying students were largely capable of reflecting on their development of interprofessional competence after attending specific IPL events, which were part of a wider programme. Social work students found reflective writing difficult, although this improved over time. In particular students struggled to write about skills and attitudes. Students perceived the portfolio to be a good way to assess their progress and believed this helped them to engage with their learning and make meaning through reflection and analysis. They appreciated that IPL and feedback from their assessments had advanced their abilities for self-analysis; despite needing help with reflective writing, they felt better prepared for ongoing use of reflection in their professional development, and in ‘working together’.     

Getting Comfortable as “Fish Out of Water”: Using Qualitative Research Methods Training to Enhance the Technical Capacity of Family Therapy Trainees

This article describes a qualitative research methods training project undertaken in a COAMFTE‐accredited family therapy master’s‐level program. Graduate students were trained to collect research data for a qualitative study on the resilience of families displaced to the United States because of war and politically motivated violence in their country of origin. By involving trainees in a research project with refugees, the project was intended to address a gap in clinicians’ training, specific to the refugee population (Miller, Muzurovic, Worthington, Tipping, and Goldman, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 2002; 72 : 341). However, the training process was also a way to increase the students’ skills at interviewing in complex situations, develop their cultural sensitivity beyond awareness, enhance their capacity for routine self‐reflection, and introduce them to basic practices of qualitative research methodology. In this article, we focus on the students’ experience of the training and discuss the potential implications of their feedback for family therapy training.     

A Task-based Language Teaching Approach to Developing Metacognitive Strategies for Listening Comprehension

In second (L2) or foreign language (FL) learning, learning strategies help learners perform tasks, solve specific problems, and compensate for learning deficits. Of the strategy types, metacognitive strategies manage and regulate the construction of L2 or FL knowledge. Although learning strategies are frequently taught via teacher demonstration, an alternative but underresearched approach is through embedded instruction in tasks. To develop strategy awareness in language learning, the present study aimed to investigate how well a task-based teaching framework was able to develop intermediate Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students’ metacognitive awareness of listening comprehension. Eighty-eight sophomores participated in the study, which used a quasi-experimental design. The experimental group received strategy-embedded task-based listening instruction for 18 weeks, whereas the control group received only strategy-based instruction. Listening tests and questionnaires were used in the pretest and posttest stages. The results showed that the experimental group improved their metacognitive awareness of strategies for listening and outperformed the control group in the listening test. The students in the experimental group considered tasks to be an important medium of input enhancement for improving listening ability.     

Rethinking Social Work's Interpretation of ‘Environmental Justice’: From Local to Global

This article challenges social workers to expand their understanding of the ‘person-in-environment’ perspective and become more active in addressing current environmental crises. Although social work scholars have begun to explore the relationship between social work and the natural and built environment and professional organizations mandate the integration of this content into practice and education, these goals remain unrealized, particularly in the USA. To address these issues more effectively, social work educators will need to distinguish between understanding persons in their environment and environmentalism, and between environmentalism and environmental justice. This article analyzes the emergence of the environmental justice movement in the USA and other nations and its relationship to environmental racism. It presents a case study of a local environmental justice effort to demonstrate how social workers can use their knowledge and skills to make important contributions to environmental justice and sustainability. It also discusses the potential of ‘green social work’ and transformative learning theory as tools to help social work educators better equip students to make strategic alliances across professions, disciplines, and systems to address contemporary environmental crises.     

高职计算机实训教学探究

高职院校的中心任务是培养高素质、高技能的应用型人才,重点训练学生的实际动手能力。计算机实训教学以学生综合运用所学多门课程知识,以实际动手操作训练为主的综合练习,目的是培养学生的综合职业技能。计算机实训中应注意实训项目的选取、时间的安排和实训环节设计,有效地提高学生的动手能力。