Changing Students’ Attitudes Toward Research: Comparing Traditional With Flipped Classroom Learning Methods

Despite the importance of research to social work education, BSW students often view these courses negatively, demonstrating a lack of interest and increased levels of anxiety. This study assessed BSW students’ attitudes toward research and the impact of two different pedagogical approaches, traditional versus the flipped classroom. Using the Attitudes Toward Research Scale, two cohorts of BSW students (n=87) were surveyed at the completion of their research sequence. Findings from the study suggest that students taught in the flipped classroom reported lower levels of apprehension toward research and reported more positive attitudes and recognition of research usefulness than their traditional classroom counterparts.

Lessons Learned: Developing an Undergraduate Hartford Partnership Program in Aging Education

Meeting the needs of the growing older adult population requires generalist trained social workers to deliver services, especially for home and community- based care coordination. This article describes how one BSW program adapted its existing MSW Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) to prepare baccalaureate-level social workers to serve older adults. Looking at the core components of the HPPAE and the CSWE 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, this article explains the challenges that arose in developing a BSW HPPAE and how they were addressed. A BSW HPPAE model of education, patterned after the MSW HPPAE, is a viable option for needed workforce preparation and offers an opportunity for BSW programs to prepare students with important gerontological knowledge and skills while they master generalist practice.

Truth in Labeling? An Initial Evaluation of Associate in Social Work Programs

Although BSW programs have long accepted transfer students with associate degrees in human services, community colleges in the United States also offer associate in social work (ASW) degrees. Absent from the peer-reviewed literature, however, little is known about community colleges’ social work programs. They are unrecognized by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and the validity of their claims to teach social work is untested. This research located 57 such programs and evaluated their ability to meet customary benchmarks for social work education. One- third of ASW program directors completed surveys about their programs, reportedly meeting 41% of select CSWE 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards for BSW programs. This empirical study of community college programs suggests broader options for both students and colleges, challenges the consensus definition of social work education as beginning in baccalaureate studies, and raises concerns about unproven claims to teach social work.

Professional Identity: An Exploratory Study of Undergraduate Social Work Majors Versus Minors

Social work is a profession that has struggled with its identity as it distinguishes itself from allied disciplines in an effort to define its own unique purpose. The literature is void of studies that examine the degree to which undergraduate minors differ from majors in their social work identity. Analyses revealed that the identity of minors did not differ with regard to their knowledge, philosophy, and views about social workers’ roles and expertise. However, their attitude toward the profession was more pessimistic, with minors more negatively viewing the job opportunities available to social workers and the earning potential of social workers. Minors were also less likely than majors to recommend social work as a profession. Finally, minors were less prone to self-identify as social workers after graduation when compared with those majoring in the field.

#SWO332: Twitter as a Tool for Encouraging BSW Student Engagement in Policy

Historically, literature on using social media in the classroom has focused on ethical uses in practice or on classroom policies for students using different platforms. However, there is an emerging body of literature providing guidance on using social media as a teaching tool. This article, co- written by two faculty members and two BSW students, provides an example of how Twitter can be used in an entry- level social policy course to engage students, teach important skills in social media management, and expand opportunities and networks. Perspectives on experiences from both faculty members and students are shared.

A Short History of the BPD/BPD-L Email List: November 1994–November 2020

The BPD listserv is 25 years old. Starting with just a handful of subscribers, the listserv currently has about 1,760 members. Most are actively engaged educators along with publishers, doctoral students, and others interested in baccalaureate social work education. The listserv has become a mainstay for providing a forum for sharing, research, and many other issues relevant to social work education and practice. This article provides the contexts, history, and stories that have transpired over the years and speculates about the listserv’s future.

Human Capital and the Case for Undergraduate Social Work Education

Higher education, from an economic perspective, functions as an investment in human capital. It requires time, effort, and money by the student as an investment with the resulting benefits of acquiring skills, knowledge, and values that promise a stream of future tangible and intangible benefits by earning a living in a chosen field or profession. Education viewed through this lens assists educators to articulate the case for their academic programs to stakeholders, including prospective students and their parents, university administrators, government regulators, benefactors, alumni, and the general public. This perspective has previously not been discussed in the social work education literature and provides new insights into several issues affecting social work education. These include the cost of higher education, the multidimensional benefits of education for the student and society at large, the role of the Council on Social Work Education, and the current challenges to the profession.

Indigenizing Social Work: Andragogical Strategies for Incorporating Native Knowledge in Curricula

Though there are more than 5 million American Indian people living in the United States, and they are disproportionately represented among social workers’ clientele, social work curriculum rarely centers Indigenous history and knowledge. Therefore, the cultural competence training that social work students receive is incomprehensive because it often erases a critical portion of the population. This work focuses on the unique knowledge that one Indigenous social work instructor brings to her classroom, as well as the perspective of the BSW director who recruited her to the position. It is critical that the social work profession begin to move toward being representative of the diverse populations that we serve, not only in the field but also in the classroom. This work will provide examples of cultural competence training as well as Indigenous knowledge that can be incorporated into classrooms to indigenize those spaces and decolonize curricula. This article was written jointly by an Indigenous social work professor and an administrator and professor in a BSW program.