The Benefits of an Innovative Teaching Pedagogy Aimed at Combining Theory and Practice in Social Work

ABSTRACT

Being a social worker requires facing many social upheavals, juggling with organizational changes, and working with various populations with increasing complex social issues. Future social workers must quickly familiarize themselves with the conditions of the practice. In order to do so, it is essential to provide students with multiple opportunities to integrate theory and practice throughout the school curriculum through educational activities that are as close as possible to professional practise. This article shows the results of a qualitative study that compares the comments of two groups of students, one exposed to an experiential pedagogy and the other not, in order to better understand the benefits of pedagogy for the integration of theory into practice. One of the principal results of this study shows that putting students in situations similar to practice environments makes the learning meaningful, promotes the integration of theory and practice, and strengthens professional identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work
• theory-practice
• innovative teaching pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The purpose of the study was to understand how being exposed to real and meaningful learning contexts allows or not: 1) the acquisition of social intervention skills with individuals and families in a context of interdisciplinarity; 2) to identify factors perceived as favorable and unfavorable to the integration of theory into practice and interdisciplinary work; and 3) to identify factors that facilitated or disrupted the integration of theory into practice and the development of professional identity. To this end, semi-directed interviews were conducted with two groups of participants: (a) trainees who have or have not participated in a university clinic in social work and (b) teachers and supervisors who mentor them.

2. It is important to note that the Bachelor of Social Work at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi requires students to complete 66 credits from theory courses during the first two years and the third year is assigned to practicums (24 credits) in practice environments.

3. This 3 credit course (135 hours) is part of the curriculum for Bachelor of Social Work students and is usually taken during their second year in the program.

4. Due to the purpose of this study, which aimed at identifying the benefits of a pedagogy focused on the theory-practice relationship prior to third year practicums, a comparison was required between the two groups of students, those who had been exposed to the Clinic’s activities through the intervention with families course and those who had not.

*This research project was approved by the Creation and Research Ethics Board at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi.

5. C = students who participated in the Clinic’s activities.

6. PC = students who did not participate in the activities of the Clinic.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academic Development Fund for the Network as part of the Institutional Development program