Beyond challenges: Opportunities for enhancing group work field education

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on opportunities for enhancing field education for group work practice. Five challenges influencing effective learning are reviewed and problem-solving strategies to cope with each are proposed. The challenges addressed are the generalist curriculum, inadequate preparation of field educators, agency prescribed co-leadership assignments, proliferation of manual based practice, and expanding use of online groups. The authors discuss specific strategies for meeting these challenges and for providing students with a field experience that teaches them to understand, appreciate, and practice social work with groups

KEYWORDS:

• Group work
• mutual aid
• field education
• generalist practice
• manualized curricula groups. co-leadership
• online groups

Disclosure statement

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