The Development of Helping Skills in Undergraduate Social Work Education: Model and Evaluation

Abstract

Interpersonal skills training is not yet an accepted aspect of the social work curriculum. This paper discusses research findings on related interpersonal helping skills, presents ten helper traits identified in the literature, and describes a model course including both theoretical and experiential components. Following these discussions, an evaluation of the course's effectiveness in utilizing two measures of students' communication and discrimination abilities is presented. Data indicate that the course successfully achieved its objectives. The authors argue for greater attention to skills training as a component of competency-based social work education.