introduction to social work assignments

Introduction to Social Work

An advocacy-based profession.

Introduction to Social Work/Social Welfare

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The open-access Student Study Site makes it easy for students to maximize their study time, anywhere, anytime. It offers flashcards that strengthen understanding of key terms and concepts, as well as learning objectives that reinforce the most important material.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• The Third Edition is available as a digital option through SAGE Vantage , an intuitive digital platform that offers auto-graded assignments and interactive multimedia tools—including video—all designed to enable students to better prepare for class.
• New and updated contemporary topics involving social work advocacy and political action at the federal level, especially in the area of health care reform, help readers examine the changes that occur when leadership shifts in the United States.
• Increased attention to ethics includes the need to consider dilemmas and applying ethical considerations in social work practice.
• Additional person-first language throughout makes the material more accessible to readers.
• Enhanced content on the intersections of diversity and multicultural practice reflects today’s increasingly diverse world.
• Additional coverage of substance use and addiction services gives attention to growing areas of concern in social work.
• A unique advocacy framework explores the signature roots of the social work profession, its history, key figures, practice settings, policies, and the type of work performed on individual, group, community, local, state, national, and international levels.
• A theme of inter-professional education and practice is integrated throughout and illustrated within various case vignettes.
• A grid of the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) within the preface serves as an easy reference to the accreditation requirements set forth by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
• Reflective practice and Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) are integrated throughout.  
• Social Work in Action, Spotlight on Advocacy and Current Trends boxes provide applied examples of social workers' transformative opportunities and contributions in confronting complicated life situations.
• Time to Think features ask students to reflect on their own experiences in relation to the chapter to make content easier to retain.
• Your Career sections introduce potential career paths for future social workers.
• Robust in-text pedagogy includes learning objectives, chapter summaries, discussion questions, and exercises for mastering the material.

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SWO 2321 - Introduction to Social Work

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• Last Updated: Feb 20, 2024 1:41 PM
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SOWK 101 Introduction to Social Work

• Course Description

Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare is a course that gives an overview of the field of social work practice. Topics regarding the ecclesiastical beginnings of the profession, additional historical components, the integration of faith and practice, as well as social work values and ethics will be explored.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the  Academic Course Catalog .

Course Guide

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*The information contained in our Course Guides is provided as a sample. Specific course curriculum and requirements for each course are provided by individual instructors each semester. Students should not use Course Guides to find and complete assignments, class prerequisites, or order books.

Introduction to Social Work offers the student a broad overview of the practice of generalist social work. The student interested in pursuing the attainment of a Bachelor of Science in Social Work, as well as those with interest in learning about the field, will be presented with the foundational knowledge of the field. This course will examine the knowledge, values, and skills of the field of social work from a Christ-centered point of view.

Course Assignment

No details available.

After reading the Course Syllabus and  Student Expectations , the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to create a thread in response to the provided prompt for this Discussion. The initial thread must be 300 words, integrate a minimum of 1 scholarly source and 1 biblical principle, and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 100 words and integrate 1 source, either scholarly or biblical. All sources used must be cited in current APA format. Acceptable sources include the textbook, peer-reviewed publications, and the Bible. (CLO: B, C, D, E, F, G)

Poverty Journal Assignment

For the first part of a two-part assignment, the student will submit seven journal entries (one per day/week). The student will follow specific guidelines for a 7 consecutive day poverty immersive simulation experience. For the poverty journal, the student will give a daily itemized list of expenses, activities, descriptive feelings, and daily biblical scripture experienced during these 7 days. The student must organize his/her journal utilizing headings for each day and the subtopics of the journal. Further details of the rules for the 7-day experience are provided in the assignment instructions. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

Poverty Reflection Assignment

For the second part of a two-part assignment, the student will provide a minimum of 3 pages and a maximum of 5 pages of written reflection comparing and contrasting his/her poverty immersive simulation experience and the Maid’s experiences within select chapters of the Land textbook, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s will to Survive . Students are required to cite a minimum of 3 scholarly sources (including the required Land text). The additional 2 scholarly sources may include Read items, journal articles, and other statistical sources/databases. The Land text contains 3 Parts, the student is required to read Chapter 1 and select individual choices from each Part as instructed within each Canvas Module/Week. APA headings should be the title of the Land chapter to identify to the instructor the point of reference in the student’s writing. 

(CLO: A, B, C, D, E, F, G)

The student will create an 8-slide minimum PowerPoint presentation based on an area of interest in a specific field of social work covered in the Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner text. The student will then research a problem or need addressed within this field and an agency, advocacy effort, or organization whose mission is targeted to this need or problem. The content of the PowerPoint presentation should contain the following information: a descriptive explanation and history of the problem or need; a description of the chosen field of social work; the mission, goal, effort, agency, or organization; the proposed solution to the problem; and related social work competencies. Sources should be cited in APA format on each content slide with a minimum of 3 scholarly sources used in the presentation. (CLO: B, E)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned Module: Week. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes and contain 4-8 multiple-choice and true/false questions. There is no time limit on these quizzes and the student is only able to take this quiz one time. (CLO: A, D).

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Key Components for Effective Social Work Assignments

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jan 26, 2023

As social work educators, we create assignments to give our students opportunities to learn about the profession and develop competencies needed for social practice. Assignments also offer a way to assess if students are growing in their understanding of how to be professional social workers. Assignments can range from reading a chapter in the course textbook to a 20-page research paper and more. I have shared many assignments on this blog that I have used in various classes. What I have learned over the years is that it takes effort and structure to create a quality assignment that will help students connect what they are learning in the classroom to their field experience and beyond. In this blog post, I share my thoughts on how to structure an assignment that is clear and contextualized for the social work profession, using three simple questions – Why?, What?, and How?

The Power of Words: Using Poetic Analysis in a Social Work Research Course

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Apr 29, 2022

Editor’s Note:   This blog post was written by Amber Sutton, LICSW, ABD, a social work instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in collaboration with students from her undergraduate social work research course during the Spring 2022 semester.   The students are (in alphabetical order): Iva Burdette, Jackie Chavez-Martinez, Jennifer Dussich, Courtney Kramer-Williams, Katie Kramer, Hannah Marsh, Rachel Shunnarah, Natalie Trammell, Ahmia Vain, and Ella Wolfe.  In this blog post, Amber and the students share how they used poetic analysis to answer some age-old questions – What does it mean to be a social worker, and what is research?  You can also read their two poems.

When agreeing to teach SW 320 Research Methods to BSW students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), I knew I wanted to highlight alternative ways to conduct research that add an element of humanity to the data and encourage the students to use research to share power.

We started the class by reading Ann Hartman’s 1990 article, The Many Ways of Knowing .  This article remains just as relevant today as it did then and has played a fundamental role in developing my relationship with research.  Hartman’s editorial essay calls on social workers to recognize that each contribution adds to our knowledge and deepens our understanding.  She boldly states, “there are many truths, and there are many ways of knowing” (p. 3).  This article served as the foundation of the course because I wanted the students to understand that quantitative and qualitative methods are an integral part of social work research.  Our profession misses out when we center on quantitative research as the only valid way of knowing.

During our very first class, I provided large post-it notes and markers.  Then, allotting 20 minutes, I asked the students to answer these two questions in a way that felt most comfortable to them (words, drawings, etc.):

• What does being a professional social worker mean to you?
• How do you define research?

Two Ways to Decolonize a Social Work Research Course

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Mar 17, 2022

Editor’s Note: Dr. Amy Werman, DSW, LCSW ,  is a Lecturer in Discipline at the Columbia School of Social Work , with over 20 years of teaching experience in social work education. In this blog post, she shares two practical suggestions for social work research courses, focusing on ways to decolonize traditional content and integrate an anti-racist/anti-oppressive approach to teaching about research methodology.

For the past 20 years, I have been educating MSW students. The first course I ever taught was Research Methods, an “interesting” initiation into the field of teaching considering that most students would never choose to take this first-year course were it not required. How do I know this? It is a question on a survey that I give my research students at the beginning of every semester. And, consistently, 50% of students say that, given a choice, they would not take the course. 

It’s understandable. If we’re being completely honest, social workers are in the business of “doing,” whether that’s providing concrete services, administering programs, writing policy, or ameliorating a host of micro-level to macro-level problems on the local and global level. Students struggle to comprehend how studying research relates to their endgame of “doing.” Moreover, many students report having a fear of research, viewing it as something to get through. Incoming students offer words like “boring,” “overwhelming,” “statistics,” and “intimidating” when I ask them to free-associate to the term “research.” 

Re-Capping Teaching & Learning in SWK for 2021

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Dec 30, 2021

One of my academic favorites is Dr. Katie Linder who produces a podcast called You’ve Got This , where she offers advice and examples for other academics as they navigate the world of higher education. Frequently, Katie talks about goal setting and how she works to accomplish her own goals. As I listened to her end-of-the-year podcast about her 2021 goals, all I could think about was my blog.

You see, every year, I set goals for this blog, and rarely do I accomplish these goals. Here is some of the evidence:

Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work for 2019

Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work for 2018

Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work for 2017

Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog Posts for 2016

I even tried to set goals for the first quarter of 2020 and publish only seven blog posts. Sigh! Here they are:

Developing a Personalized Social Media Policy for Social Work Practice

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jul 14, 2021

Editor’s Note : This blog post is adapted from the Second Edition of the Social Media Toolkit for Social Work Field Educators .

There are many reasons for social workers to have a personalized social media policy – to maintain boundaries, protect privacy and confidentiality, and model professional behavior.  To be clear, I am not referring to the policy that your organization or institution might have, directing the faculty, staff, and students on when it is okay to use social media, but one that you develop and follow as an individual practitioner, student, and/or educator. The purpose of a social media policy is to inform clients, students, colleagues, and others about when, how, and why you use social media in a professional capacity.  From an ethical lens, this is a recommended practice per National Association of Social Worker’s (NASW) Technology in Social Work Practice Standard 2.10 – Social Media Policy and fits with the NASW Code of Ethics  standards of informed consent with clients (1.3e-i), respect with colleagues (2.1), and when conducting supervision and consultation (3.1).  

The following steps provide a guide for developing a social media policy that can be used as an assignment in a classroom with students or adapted for practitioners:  

A review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work for 2020

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jan 6, 2021

2020 was a strange year with many firsts for me – first global pandemic, first sabbatical, first live sessions in an online course, etc. Because of all these firsts, blogging took a bit of back seat to some of my other projects and goals for the year. I had four goals for the blog over the year, and some minor successes. They were:

#1 – Publish 30 posts – only published 19

#2 – Enhance the reach of the blog – there were almost 45,500 visitors from 153 different countries with each visitor spending an average of 1 minute on the blog.

#3 – Build a culture of engagement – only had 10 comments for the year.

#4 – Publish content in other places – there will be two articles in 2021 with content from the blog.

Outside of these goals, I did update content on the blog and created an archive page. The two most popular blog posts of 2020 were:

A Love Letter to Social Workers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 (4/10/20) by Melanie Sage with over 24,000 visits

The Power of Lighting in a Virtual Classroom: Tips on Improving Webcam Lighting for Online Educators (3/16/20) by Agata Dera with over 3,000 visits

Laurel Hitchcock

Photo Credit: Jared Bash

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Introduction to social work practice.

Course Description

Introduction to Social Work Practice will prepare students to successfully approach both social work education and social work practice. The course will introduce social work students to key social work ideas, values, concepts, and skills, including the code of ethics, social work’s grand challenges and P.O.D.S. (privilege, oppression, diversity and social justice). Students will be oriented to social work education at the University of Michigan, including how professional graduate education may differ from past educational experiences, specialization options available, and the role of lifelong learning. Students will be introduced to a professional portfolio that they will use throughout their time in the program.

● Develop a sense of belonging to the UM MSW program by interacting with fellow students and faculty. ● Describe ethical decision-making processes as applied to social work practice settings in a manner that reflects the laws, regulations, and code of ethics of social work (Essential 36, 44; EPAS 1). ● Identify how social workers ethically engage with technology practice (Essential 26; EPAS 1) ● Recognize how social work practice connects to the “Grand Challenges” (Essential 31; EPAS 2). ● Identify ways social workers can engage in social justice and anti-racism work (Essential 30, 45; EPAS 1, 2, 3, 5). ● Develop a self-care plan that includes elements across different domains (Essential 40, 43; EPAS 1, 6).

This course will use multiple methods including but not limited to: lectures, demonstrations, case studies, readings, guest speakers, discussions, written assignments, individual and group exercises.

Intensive Focus on Privilege, Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice (PODS)

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An introduction to social work

Introduction.

This free course, An introduction to social work , will introduce you to the social work role and develop your understanding of some of the knowledge and theory associated with social work practice in the UK. You will begin by thinking about key ideas, values, the social work process and the skills needed for social work practice. You will then move on to look at social work with individuals, exploring the importance of biography. Finally, you will consider reflective practice. Reflective activities will enable you to apply learning from your own life and/or practice, as well as new learning from this course to your current situation.

This OpenLearn course is an example of level 1 study in Social work [ Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. ( Hide tip ) ] . You might be interested in the related Open University course K123 Foundations for social care and social work practice .

Tell us what you think! We’d love to hear from you to help us improve our free learning offering through OpenLearn by filling out this short survey .