This article reports on a professional development initiative organized by two junior university social work teachers. Along with three experienced colleagues, the two teachers experimented with a professional co-development group. The purpose of this group modality, which has much in common with peer supervision, is to reflect on professional…

This article evaluates the effect of a community project that was adopted by the students of a school of social work in Israel. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used. The pretest was administered during the planning stage of the project and the posttest a year later, during the implementation period. The findings show a significant…

This article addresses the challenging task of preparing baccalaureate social work students to master proficiency as first responders in stress and trauma situations. We begin with a brief description of the context, goals, admission procedure, structure, and process of a stress and trauma studies (STS) program. We then compare the development of…

This article is an examination of strategies for engaging students in programs of human services education. We describe an in class mask-making activity, used by three human services instructors at an undergraduate university in western Canada, as a means of engaging students to grow in individual and collaborative awareness and skills. We present…

Historically, society has associated a visit from a child protection worker with the removal of children. In Canada in the 1960s, Aboriginal children were removed from their communities in alarming numbers and were referred to as the "sixties scoop." This may in part explain the difficulty in recruiting Aboriginal social workers into…

The surge of interest in evidence-based interventions necessitates MSW graduates who will pursue research activities in the workplace. However, evidence suggests that social workers tend not to use their research skills after graduation. This study examined three constructs that inform students' relationships to research: (a) confidence in…

Teaching research to social work students continues to be the topic of an ongoing dialog within the profession. The literature suggests that some form of a "real-world" or "hands-on" learning opportunity has many benefits for teaching a subject that students often are reluctant to engage in. Using online survey methods,…

Historically, addiction has been an area in which Canadian social workers have received limited formal education. This reality led to the development of 18 core technical competencies through the auspices of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in 2006. A survey of Canadian schools and faculties of social work found that social work students…

One of the first tasks of the Social Work Distance Education Network at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary was to review the literature and address three research questions to inform policy making and planning relating to distance social work education programming. This paper is intended to disseminate responses to these…

Video conferencing has much potential to enrich international social work education. In this educational initiative, video conferencing was used to deliver a joint foundation social work practice class to students attending an MSW degree program both in the United States and in Ireland. Student feedback indicated that they gained an appreciation…

In July 2010, the faculties of Law, Business and Economics, and Medicine at Monash University, Australia commenced placing law, finance, and social work students in a multidisciplinary clinic at a community legal service operated by the University. Students from the three disciplines began seeing legal service clients at the same time as a team.…

Social work students' stereotypical perceptions of excluded populations could be decisive in the way they treat those who are excluded. In an attempt to change such perceptions and enhance knowledge about how to work with an excluded population, a dialogue-in-class model was implemented between students of social work in Israel and persons with…

This study explored baccalaureate social work students' self-efficacy at a rural southern university. Bandura's concept of self-efficacy is used as a theoretical base for the study. Students (N = 43) in introductory social work courses and in the field practicum course completed the Foundation Practice Self Efficacy Scale. Following The Council on…

This article reports on a study designed to validate the Gatekeeping Attitude Index, a 14-item Likert scaling index. The authors collected data from a convenience sample of social work field instructors (N = 188) with a response rate of 74.0%. Construct validation by exploratory factor analysis identified a 2-factor solution on the index after…

Social work admission criteria are used to ensure student academic competence, identify personal characteristics associated with success in social work education and practice, predict success in class and field work, and promote diversity of the student body. However, evidence that supports the effectiveness of these admission policies is…