Professional schools are developing conceptual frameworks that can be used to assess and improve implicit curricula. Students' professional empowerment, defined to include perceived professional competence and identity, may be considered a vital outcome of these efforts. Our study evaluated measures and tested a path model that included…

The foundation year and specialization year of study are the accepted framework for graduate social work education. A common belief among educators is that accreditation standards are prescriptive by design, resulting in a rigidity that neither encourages nor supports curricular innovation. This article outlines a newly developed curriculum model…

As gambling opportunities proliferate, social workers are likely to see clients with gambling-related problems, but they often lack the expertise to address these concerns. This descriptive study assessed the inclusion of content on gambling-related problems in graduate social work curricula. Responses to an online survey from 86 (43.7%) of the…

The Council on Social Work Education's Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) stresses the importance of the implicit curriculum in shaping a school's culture. This timely article describes how the implicit BSW curriculum was developed at a large Southern state university using three Web-based projects: (1) a glossary of terms for…

More than one third of Americans practice complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Social workers continue to provide most first-line health, mental health, and psychological referral and direct practice services in the United States, despite a lack of systematic education and training opportunities in CAM. Schools of social work are…

This article provides an analysis of the current method of accommodating students with disabilities in social work education and presents a new framework for providing universal access to all students in social work education: Universal Instructional Design (UID). UID goes beyond adapting already developed social work curricula to fit the needs of…

Describes a teaching framework combining culturally sensitive and culturally specific perspectives to prepare students for cross-cultural clinical social work. Three components are (1) an overview of social constructivism; (2) exploration of culture and self to encourage openness to cultural diversity; and (3) a social-constructivist approach to…

Provides a theoretical framework for professional-values education in social work that incorporates personal, social, political, and professional values dimensions, each with explicit learning objectives and educational outcomes. The currently prevalent infusion model of values education clarifies values but does not help students integrate…

A survey of 208 social-work students found a generally favorable stance toward the role of spirituality and religion in social work, and relatively high endorsement and use of spiritually oriented interventions with clients. At the same time, students reported relatively little exposure to content on religion and spirituality in their educational…

Surveyed 48 social-work doctoral-program directors about the inclusion of philosophical issues in the curriculum. The survey asked about traditional and emergent epistemologies, including heuristics, social constructivism, and other forms of postmodernism. Results suggest that while such content is included in research courses, directors face…

While recording is an integral part of social-work practice, technology and accountability issues have heightened concern about recording practices and many issues remain unresolved, including those of client privacy, style, and content. Few texts and curricula on recording exist. Some approaches and resources for integrating recording into…

A discussion of cooperative learning in social-work education outlines its characteristics, reviews theory and research supporting its use, examines its relevance to social work, and provides case examples for use throughout the social-work curriculum. (Author/MSE)

Outlines a transactional model for addressing the underrepresentation of key areas in advanced clinical courses in human behavior in the social environment (HBSE), looking at social work's understanding of the biological and spiritual aspects of human beings. The transactional model is distinguished from other reductionist or interactionist models…

Offers a model of social-work education that infuses multicultural content into the field curriculum and enhances faculty diversity. One school's field-practice seminars integrate diversity training by pairing community facilitators with faculty facilitators to increase instructors' awareness of diversity; offering ongoing workshops to train…

A 1994 national survey of deans of 91 accredited social work education programs investigated policies and procedures related to granting advanced standing to social work master's degree students who completed social work foundation courses during undergraduate study. Most have policies and procedures related to advanced standing, but they vary…