This research examines professional values and individuals' decisions to pursue social work education, with gatekeeping as a mediator of this relationship. Motivations are derived from Community of Practice theory: community, domain, practice, and skills. MSW students (N=528) were recruited across the U.S. Structural equation modeling was used to…

Evidence shows that when an interprofessional (IP) approach is effectively implemented, it can counteract some of our most pressing health care problems. One such challenge is the lack of training in IP teamwork health care professionals receive during their education. Using a quasi-experimental matched comparison group design, this study assessed…

Research in distance education has investigated student satisfaction and learning outcomes, comparing face-to-face with online delivery formats, and tested various technological tools, but has yet to consider alternative pedagogies. Liberatory pedagogy facilitates critical thinking, awareness, reflection and social action around constructs such as…

Social workers rarely receive education and training in the areas of grief, bereavement, and death and dying, which may lead to difficulties in compassionately and ethically addressing concerns in end-of-life or grief-related contexts. This article presents actual and potential outcomes from three challenging end-of-life case studies using…

The aims of this article are twofold: to discuss the value of practice-based research as a basis for enhancing learning and teaching in social work and, as an illustration of this, to present the findings of a preliminary qualitative research study into social work students' development of professional judgment skills. The research was conducted…

The 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards identified 10 core competencies that all social work graduates should master. MSW programs found themselves with a need to identify knowledge, values, and skill statements that reflected what concentration-year students were expected to know and be able to do. In 2009 a group of educators…

Rapid changes in health care services and delivery suggest an upcoming paradigm shift in the field of mental health. Recent national reports, health care policy changes, and growing evidence support a shift toward prevention-focused mental health care. The social work profession is uniquely positioned to act as leaders in this shift as the…

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…

In this article, we report the findings from a study exploring the effects of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching and learning on learning outcomes for master's of social work (MSW) students. Students who participated in a PBL pilot project were compared with students who did not participate in 5 outcome areas: social work…

Edicts within the Council on Social Work Education's 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards address the importance of understanding the intersection of personal and professional values. Twenty MSW students, chosen on the basis of diverse cultural and personal characteristics, were interviewed about their motivations for pursuing a MSW…

This study compared professional socialization outcomes in two groups of adult students in part time Masters of Social Work programs, 44 with an undergraduate degree in social work and at least 1 year of relevant work experience, and 26 with undergraduate degrees and work experience in other fields. Subjects were given three measures of attitudes…

A secondary analysis of data from a California-wide sample of 162 American Indian, entering MSW students indicated that American Indian students demonstrated a noticeably stronger adherence toward social work's traditional mission of helping poor and disadvantaged populations when compared to all MSW students. Implications for practice with…