Teaching Note—Incorporating Social Innovation Content Into Macro Social Work Education

The practice of social innovation offers promising approaches for addressing social issues. Although many social innovation strategies are congruent with macro social work theory and practice, some of the insights and tactics that have emerged in the social innovation field have the potential to strengthen current macro practice. Based on our experiences with the social innovation program at the Boston College School of Social Work, we focus on 5 aspects of the social innovation cycle and suggest social innovation content that can be incorporated into macro social work curriculum.     

Teaching Note—Tweeting Macro Practice: Social Media in the Social Work Classroom

ABSTRACT

Despite its ubiquity, social work educators are just beginning to harness social media in teaching. In this teaching note, we discuss our use of Twitter in a bachelor’s-level macro Human Behavior in the Social Environment course. We present results from a survey of 45 students designed to assess their perceptions of Twitter use in the classroom and, in particular, as a macro social work learning tool. Students appreciated using social media in the course and reported that Twitter was a valuable professional social work tool. We explore how social work educators can provide an innovative classroom experience that incorporates ethical and professional use of social media and demonstrate how we used Twitter to apply macro practice competencies.     

Teaching Note—An Exploration of Team-Based Learning and Social Work Education: A Natural Fit

The literature on team-based learning (TBL) as a pedagogical methodology in social work education is limited; however, TBL, which was developed as a model for business, has been successfully used as a teaching methodology in nursing, business, engineering, medical school, and many other disciplines in academia. This project examines the use of TBL in a Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) class and how a convenience sample (n?=?44) of undergraduate students responds to this method of learning. The project addresses the implications for this pedagogical style as an innovative way for teaching the social work curriculum and preparing a future generation of social workers to be productive members of work-related and professional groups.     

Teaching Note—Evaluation of an Avoiding Plagiarism Workshop for Social Work Students

A 1-hour workshop on how to avoid plagiarizing when writing academic papers was developed and delivered at an orientation session for BSW and MSW students at a university in the northeast United States. Six social work instructors led the workshops at the university’s main campus and two extension centers. Before and after the workshop, students read an original passage from a social work text and were asked if the material were paraphrased in four different ways would it constitute plagiarism. Pre- and posttest results indicated that the workshop increased the percentage of students who could correctly identify examples of plagiarism versus ethical writing. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

Teaching Note—Circle of Insight: A Paradigm and Pedagogy for Liberation Social Justice Social Work Education

The Circle of Insight is a dialectical, open, purposeful, and enlightening process that moves those engaged toward deeper, liberating insight. It is a pedagogical construct I created over the past 15 years that I have used in teaching and developing my social justice social work classes. It integrates a see, reflect, act cyclical process that is at once personal and social. In this article, I present the Circle of Insight as a teaching tool, a creative, transformative pedagogical process for explicitly advancing Competency 3, Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice, of the Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards for baccalaureate and master’s social work programs.     

Social Work and Sustainable Social Development: Teaching and Learning Strategies for ‘Green Social Work’ Curriculum

It is increasingly recognized that social work has a vital role to play in shaping effective responses to environmental degradation, climate change and disasters. Innovative teaching and learning strategies can be used to facilitate understanding of complex, interrelated and systemic social, economic and environmental challenges. This article shares the development and design of a new social work course entitled ‘Social work and sustainable social development’. Teaching methods and strategies are provided including individual and group mind maps, case studies and presentations, guest speakers and evaluation methods. Implications for social work education and the profession are discussed in order to build capacity to address environmental justice and sustainability.     

Teaching Note—Incorporating Journal Clubs Into Social Work Education: An Exploratory Model

This article outlines the implementation of a journal club for master's and doctoral social work students interested in mental health practice. It defines educational journal clubs and discusses the history of journal clubs in medical education and the applicability of the model to social work education. The feasibility of implementing journal clubs in a school of social welfare is highlighted. The journal club received high ratings on student evaluations indicating participants thought it was a valuable addition to their education. Journal clubs align with the program mission and goals of the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) set forth by the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), and they can be an affordable, easily implemented, and sustainable supplement to traditional research curricula.     

Teaching Note—Closing the Health Gap and Social Work Education: A Grand Challenge

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare has defined 12 challenges for the social work profession, one of which is Close the Health Gap, addressing health inequities in the United States. The Close the Health Gap challenge is appropriate for the profession from historical, theoretical, ethical, and professional perspectives. Therefore, it is incumbent on social work educators to incorporate content on this challenge into the classroom. This Teaching Note presents a suggested assignment that can be used to incorporate such content into already existing classes, mapping them onto social work competencies.     

Teaching Critical Reflection: A Tool for Transformative Learning in Social Work?

In an Australian Bachelor of Social Work degree, critical reflection is a process explicitly taught in a fourth year subject to students who have returned from their first field placement experience in agencies delivering social work programmes. The purpose of teaching critical reflection is to enable social work students to become autonomous and critical thinkers who can reflect on society, the role of social work and social work practices. The way critical reflection is taught in this fourth year social work unit relates closely to the aims of transformative learning. Transformative learning aims to assist students to become autonomous thinkers. Specifically, the critical reflection process taught in this subject aims to assist students to recognise their own and other people's frames of reference, to identify the dominant discourses circulating in making sense of their experience, to problematise their taken-for -granted ‘lived experience’, to reconceptualise identity categories, disrupt assumed causal relations and to reflect on how power relations are operating. Critical reflection often draws on many theoretical frameworks to enable the recognition of current modes of thinking and doing. In this paper, we will draw primarily on how post-structural theories, specifically Foucault's theorising, disrupt several taken-for-granted concepts in social work.     

Teaching Note—Creating an Integrative Research Learning Environment for BSW and MSW Students

ABSTRACT

Research courses are often the least popular among BSW and MSW students because the connection between social work practice and research is not always evident. This teaching note introduces the structure of the Social Work integrative Research Lab (SWiRL), which was implemented in a social work program without a doctoral program at a large public university. SWiRL offers students opportunities to engage meaningfully in a variety of social work research projects using a framework of nested mentoring. Students gain hands-on research experience while they develop confidence, leadership, and mentoring skills within this structure. The authors discuss recommendations for other social work programs that do not have doctoral education or an established research environment.     

Teaching Note—Teaching Intersectionality: Transforming Cultural Competence Content in Social Work Education

Intersectionality has been gaining momentum among social workers as a framework to allow a fuller understanding of the complexity of diverse social identities and the impact of social structures on power, privilege, and oppression. However, the application of intersectionality to teaching in social work education has been relatively absent in the literature. This article describes a 3-hour graduate-level classroom exercise designed to increase knowledge and proficiency of intersectionality. Critical self-reflections of the participants’ experiences are provided to illustrate the evolving growth and awareness that can result from the educational process using this framework. Examples and suggestions for reading assignments and classroom activities are offered. Implications for social work education and future directions are discussed.     

Teaching Note—Social Work Serial: Using Video-Recorded Simulated Client Sessions to Teach Social Work Practice

Simulation, the use of trained actors as simulated clients, has gained empirical support as an effective teaching and assessment method in social work education. The associated costs involving the use of live simulation, however, often pose a barrier and prevent less resourced schools from implementing this pedagogical approach in the classroom. Social Work Serial is a pedagogical project that used video-recorded simulated client sessions as an alternative to live simulation. In this teaching note, we will describe step-by-step production and implementation processes involving the project and discuss the implications of video-based simulation for social work education.     

Teaching a Module on HIV and AIDS for Social Work Students—Strategies,Content and Outcome

This paper outlines the author's experience of teaching a module on HIV and AIDS to social work students over several years at Brunel University. She argues that the relevance of the subject matter for social work students has not changed since the module was first introduced 18 years ago. Similar to their previous counterparts, current students still experience a range of emotions, feelings, fears and uncertainties about their competence and skills in responding to the issues presented by individuals infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. The paper describes the aims, curriculum, teaching strategies, assignment and evaluation of the module. Additionally, the paper discusses the learning environment in which the module is taught, and the strategies used to enable students to confront fears, prejudices, improve their knowledge base and gain skills for working with service users infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. In concluding, the paper emphasises the continued implications and observed benefits of this subject for social work students.     

Videoconferencing: A Viable Teaching Strategy for Social Work Education?

The findings of a study that examined students' reports about their experience with ITV are presented. The results are based on two different courses with different instructors and different composition of students. Results show that students in both sites report that the use of technology does not compromise their learning but they dislike it. Strategies for future research to understand the nature of the reaction are suggested.     

Teaching Note—No Peace Without Justice: Addressing the United States’ War on Drugs in Social Work Education

The United States’ War on Drugs encompasses a body of legislation characterized by punitive approaches to drug control. These policies have resulted in escalating incarceration rates and have extracted a particularly harsh toll on low-income people of color. This article argues that education on the War on Drugs is essential for effective practice with people affected by addictions and is also an important social justice issue. It is thus the responsibility of educators to incorporate a critical examination of drug policy into course work. Strategies for addressing drug policy in social work education are provided, including the use of guest speakers and multimedia presentations, case study assignments that prompt students to examine the intersection of policy and practice, and international drug policy comparisons.     

Teaching Note—Learning About Segregation and Cultural Competence

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education requires students to understand how diversity and difference shape human experience. But segregation prevents students from appreciating the circumstances of others’ lives and how widely human experience differs by race, religion, and other social identities. This teaching note presents the Social Contact Survey, a pedagogical tool designed to help students understand their level of segregation, its effect on their daily lives, and its relationship to social work practice. Aversive racism and intergroup contact theories suggest a relationship between segregation and prejudice and frame the survey. Following a review of the literature and theory, the survey instrument and pedagogical suggestions are provided.     

Teaching Note—Technology-Enhanced Clinical Simulations: Tools for Practicing Clinical Skills in Online Social Work Programs

ABSTRACT

Technology-based simulations provide vehicles for social work students to practice clinical skills in online environments. This teaching note reviews 2 simulation tools educators may consider implementing in their training programs: virtual patients and Second Life. The current literature is presented discussing the use of these simulations in online learning programs. Suggestions for incorporating simulations into distance education programs are provided along with suggestions for future directions for research in this area. Educators are encouraged to examine these tools and further evaluate their feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy in building direct practice skills in online environments.     

Teaching Note—Third Space Caucusing: Borderland Praxis in the Social Work Classroom

This teaching note examines the use of intentional, identity-centered spaces in the social work classroom. We discuss the use of identity-based caucusing as a means of centering the embodied and lived experiences of students in the social work classroom, drawing from previous classroom experiences in an MSW foundation course on social justice at a large public university. Specifically, we consider borderland perspectives and postcolonial constructions of third spaces and their usefulness in social work pedagogy. In particular, we pose questions regarding the use of third space caucusing as a means of embracing and affirming both/and, neither/nor identity positionalities. We also consider possibilities of student-centered, critical pedagogical approaches while paying attention to the unique challenges and contexts of social work education.