Experiential exercises can be effectively incorporated into social work courses that focus on diversity, oppression, and social justice. This article describes three models of experiential activities, provides examples of exercises within the three models and empirical support for their effectiveness, and identifies criticisms surrounding their…

Social work students enter the field of social work for many reasons--from wanting to become clinicians to wanting to advocate for a more socially just world. Social policy classes can be the ideal courses to provide instruction on conducting research on current policy issues. Teaching students about policy advocacy can lead to a class rich with…

To tackle the complexity of issues associated with homelessness, an interdisciplinary lens with direct input from service providers and community members is necessary. Within a community-university partnership between a larger inner-city multiservice shelter serving the homeless population, and faculties of social work and nursing in a Canadian…

Teaching macro practice can be challenging. While students have some concepts of what macro practice entails, their knowledge may be limited and sometimes inaccurate. Moreover, students may be reluctant to engage in macro change efforts. Given the scarcity of literature regarding teaching macro practice and the growing importance of it in social…

The organization is often the overlooked level in social work's ecological perspective. However, organizational realities exert a profound influence on human development and well-being as well as the nature and quality of social work practice. This article describes a model of teaching organization theory and practice which requires master's…

Documentaries can be used as a pedagogical tool to better understand social policy. This medium is especially suited to provide perspectives that often go unheard in policy debates, academic discussions, and textbooks. While many social work educators use documentary films, there is little discussion about this media in the social work literature.…

The critical examination of language and the deconstruction of truth claims play an important role in how we build with diversity in our classrooms. We, as social work educators involved with playful postmodernism, recognize the significance of improvisation and playfulness in engaging the question: how is this examination and deconstruction done?…

Social work doctoral candidates and others without much or any formal teaching experience or training are frequently invited to teach a variety of graduate-level social work courses. This beginning teaching experience can be quite challenging both personally and professionally. Yet, it is seldom discussed in the literature, especially from a…

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…

Uses a personal perspective to reflect on the varieties of challenges and satisfactions in teaching social work in several different countries; discusses the role of the teacher and the danger of obsessive adherence to any specific "models" of teaching. Makes a case for the teacher's presentation of self rather than reliance of technological…

Describes the challenges and rewards of teaching social work, noting mistakes and successes in his approach to the task/opportunity. Using a non-BSW class in community organization practice as the template, he assesses the adaptations needed to teach students with widely diverse academic backgrounds, emphasizing the importance of careful and…

This article deals with an educational structure where students' personal narratives are used to deepen their understanding of what reactions to crises may imply. Through writing about experienced violence the students introduced into the learning environment stories that could be analyzed and serve as illustrations of ways of reacting to crises.…

This paper employs a three-step process to analyze three empirically supported strategies for teaching statistics to BSW students. The strategies included: repetition, immediate feedback, and use of original data. First, each strategy is addressed through the literature. Second, the application of employing each of the strategies over the period…

Effective social work practice with diverse populations requires the successful incorporation of multicultural knowledge, awareness, and skills. As a result, there is a pressing need for innovative and evidence-based teaching strategies and methods that provide social work students with these key multicultural tools. This paper describes one such…

Feature films, and selected clips from them, can be extremely useful tools in social work education. The widespread use and comparative low cost of videotape and now digital videodisks (DVD) have made thousands of feature films easily available to educators, students, and the general public. This article describes how clips from feature films can…