This article aims to provide an overview of an introductory MSW research course that introduced students to participatory action research (PAR) by investigating adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among social work majors at a public university. Integrating trauma-informed pedagogy with Kolb's experiential learning model provided a framework for…

Integrative field seminars can help students with the difficult task of integrating learning between field and class. Are the seminars effective? We compared one cohort of MSW students who were required to attend an integrative field seminar (n = 101) with another cohort that was not offered a seminar (n = 147). We questioned each cohort at the…

Problem-based learning (PBL) constitutes a promising way of integrating academia and social work practice because PBL fosters engagement with real-life problems and enhances important skills needed in social work practice. However, little attention has been given to social work students' experiences of PBL. In this article we address this gap by…

Purpose: Growing emphasis on program and practice evaluation in social work education coalesces with a growing interest in evaluation capacity building (ECB) within the interdisciplinary field of evaluation. However, the literature on ECB, while recognizing the importance of imparting knowledge and skills to individuals, largely ignores the…

Social work students typically use role play with student colleagues to practice clinical intervention skills. Practice with simulated clients (SCs) rather than classmates changes the dynamics of the role play and may improve learning. This is the first known study to employ the SC model in substance use assessment in social work education. Social…

Licensing has been a dynamic tension for the social work profession for many years, specifically in social work education. Increasingly, social work programs are using factors related to social work licensing (pass rates, number of test takers, etc.) as an indicator of programmatic success. Yet few, if any, published papers examine curricular…

This article presents motivating factors for taking an international social work course for a sample of graduate students in the United States. Literature on international education, including courses and international field placements, provides a framework for the study. Qualitative themes showed that students were motivated primarily as a result…

Social work educators often teach students clinical knowledge within a university classroom, whereas students tend to learn clinical practice through their practicum experiences. This article describes data from a cross-sectional, mixed-method study on one way to effectively bridge the gap between teaching clinical knowledge and practice to…

While various curriculum strategies have been presented for teaching research, little is known about the effectiveness of different teaching approaches. This study compared two models for teaching research to MSW students: a mentorship model (TM1) and a more structured, didactic model (TM2). Students (n = 23) self-completed the Research Self…

Field practicum is an active learning process. This study explores the different learning stages or processes students experience during their field practicum. First-year master's of social work students in field practica were asked how much they had engaged in educational learning activities such as observation, working independently, process…

This project starts with the contention that social work education must challenge students to reframe their knowledge and assumptions to prepare them for working with oppressed groups and develop emancipatory practice. Using transformative learning theory, constructive developmental pedagogy and related approaches, it explored the extent to which…

This study aims to evaluate the perception of a cohort of social workers studying for a part-time master's program in social work in using the popular Web-based learning platform--World Wide Web Course Tools (WebCT) as a complimentary method of teaching and learning. It was noted that social work profession began incorporating computer technology…

The purpose of this study is to improve educators' feedback mechanisms in ways that will reduce student anxiety. The relationship between graduate student anxiety levels, instructor feedback, and the effects of the use of red or green ink as instruments of feedback is examined. The sample (N = 52) comprised first year full-time and part-time MSW…

Students' perceptions of their field placements rarely are taken into account in the literature on field practicum and supervision. This survey of master's program students at a southern university examines factors associated with student satisfaction with field agency, field instructor, and field learning. (Author/MH)

To complement traditional learning activities in a masters-level research methodology course, social work students worked on a formal research project which involved: designing the study, constructing measures, selecting a sampling strategy, collecting data, reducing and analyzing data, and finally interpreting and communicating the results. The…