There is an increasing need of gerontological education in social work to enhance the knowledge of aging and interests in senior care among students. This study is conducted based on an experiential-learning strategy with a combination of having an ethnographic interview with an older adult and writing a reflection paper afterward as an assignment…

Service learning, an often-cited pedagogical approach in social work education, may be one strategy to assuage student anxiety about research course work and create continuity in siloed course content. The present study sought to provide an understanding of the impact of a service-learning project embedded in a first-year, graduate-level research…

This article presents the results of two pilot studies focused on examining social work students' ability to interview two clients at once to provide evidence supporting the use of new dyadic subscales. Students participated in a simulation scenario with either a parent and bisexual child or a parent and transgender child. Licensed social workers…

The ever growing diversity poses challenges for social work educators, who are engaged in developing new pedagogical methods for enhancing multicultural practice. Within the framework of a diversity course, I have developed a pedagogical practice for training social workers to work in a diverse, multicultural reality. Students conduct an…

This teaching note describes one example of a shift from content to competence in a graduate MSW course teaching advanced mindfulness complex practice behaviors and skills for use in direct practice. The development of advanced mindfulness competencies and skills provides a conceptual base o shift teaching from lengthy lectures to experiential…

This paper will consider the significance of emotion in assessment through reflective or experiential writing in the context of professional practice-based learning. It is based on a 12 month study conducted with undergraduate social work students undertaking what are referred to as "reflective writing" assessments. This form of assessment is a…

This paper argues for the foregrounding of improvisation and education "in the moment" within youth workers' professional development. Devised in collaboration with third-year Youth and Community Work students and lecturers at a university in Birmingham, this participatory action research project drew on work of jazz ethnomusicologists…

This case study focuses upon the transformational experiences of 28 social service and pastoral workers engaged in a Reflection Circle Process (RCP) in San Antonio, TX. The RCP involves the writing of a holistic journal entry, known as a process note, coupled with an in-depth exploration of the note with the help of a group of trusted peers, known…

This action research case study explored undergraduate social work students' perceived learning of interviewing skills in a hybrid environment course delivery. The single case study consisted of 19 students enrolled in a practice course blending web-based and face-to-face (f2f) meetings (4 of 15 f2f) within a large urban college. As part of…

The development of standardized, valid, and reliable methods for assessment of students' practice competence continues to be a challenge for social work educators. In this study, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), originally used in medicine to assess performance through simulated interviews, was adapted for social work to…

The design and conceptualisation of online learning environments for work-related, professional learning was addressed through research with users of an online environment for social workers. The core questions for the research were to identify the nature of participation in the online environment, the relationship between online participation and…

Although existing family preservation program research has focused on identifying the components of effective treatment, we remain far from fully developing empirically supported interventions (Barth, Chamberlain, Reid, Rolls, Hurlburt, Farmer, James, McCabe, & Kohl, 2005; Dufour, Chamberland, & Trocme, 2003). The current longitudinal study…

Recent concern over the standard of social work practice, as evidenced by inquiries into child abuse cases, have led to something of a crisis in trust in the profession. As a result, there is now an emphasis on increasing practitioners' competency to practice in complex situations. Critical reflection is seen as key to achieving this increase in…