The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, a research-based seminal work, provides a structure for integrating a collaborative constructivist approach in course design, implementation, and evaluation. The CoI framework suggests that by fostering three essential elements -- social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence -- a community of…

This article provides a prospective model syllabus for graduate-level social work courses exploring the interactions between social work and race--both historical and present, both productive and problematic--and makes an argument for this subject matter's relevance for a course to be implemented in the graduate-level curriculum of social work…

There has been a rapid increase in the number of online MSW programs in the past decade without a commensurate body of literature on their administration. This article acquaints MSW program faculty and administrators with quality assurance rubrics, which are research-informed tools intended for use by distance education providers to develop,…

This article discusses the course design and strategies for a graduate-level Spanish social work practice course developed by faculty at a southern California MSW program. The primary focus of the course is to develop and improve clinical and professional vocabulary and, in the process, increase cultural knowledge and understanding. An overview of…

In response to increasing global changes, this article proposes that social work education add meta-practice to traditional micro-, mezzo-, and macro-practice curriculum areas. Drawing on pertinent literature, the authors conceptualize meta-practice as a necessary paradigm shift for competent and relevant social work practice. Further, the authors…

The online environment challenges social work educators in their approach to developing students' cultural awareness and culturally competent skills. To develop student competencies, it is important for accredited social work programs to consider both their explicit and implicit curricula. Although research has focused on the influence of…

Achieving foundation-level practice behaviors to develop social work core competencies involves integrating learning across a curriculum. This article focuses on two phases of foundation-level course redevelopment aimed to support graduate students in accomplishing this outcome. The first phase involved restructuring the course to become a…

The first course in group work was taught in 1923 and was followed by a growing recognition in social work education of the importance of preparing students to work with groups. Unfortunately by the end of the 1970s group work located within a generalist curriculum had all but disappeared. This article presents a single course elective that…

A learning-oriented thematic model of process recording is proposed in which the student's recording is based on internal and external learning themes, pre-selected by the student and the field education instructor. The themes, which serve as the organizing focus of the recording, parallel classroom curricula, agency service, and student learning…

Clinical practice and research are generally taught separately in Master of Social Work programs by faculty with distinct areas of expertise. This paper discusses the teaching of single-subject design research methodology by clinical faculty, in the clinical practice class. Examples from student papers demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating…

Social work has evolved over the years taking on the challenges of the times. The profession now espouses a breadth of theoretical approaches and treatment modalities. We have developed a model to help graduate social work students master the skill of integrating theory and social work practice. The Integrative Model has five components: (l) The…