A critical challenge has emerged— how to make sense of life experiences in the realm of learning. This conundrum is particularly pronounced in the domains of social work and human services education. The call for a paradigm shift is urgent, as the theory of transformational learning contends that hands-on experiences are paramount in the educational landscape. Experiential learning stands as a powerful, proven approach that elevates education by fostering student reflection, critical thinking, service, engagement, and problem-solving. However, the realization of a high-quality experiential or service-learning experience necessitates meticulous planning and intention. It is this critical need that Transformational Learning in Social Work and Human Services Education seeks to address, providing a comprehensive Experiential-Learning Guide filled with pre-planning logistics, resources, and evaluation tools essential for crafting impactful experiential-learning events. Designed for the discerning academic scholar, this book beckons educators and administrators passionate about transformational, experiential, and service learning. Its scope reaches beyond disciplines, offering practical insights for integrating experiential learning into any course. Social Work, Human Service, and Non-Profit Administrators will find invaluable guidance on employing transformational leadership to fortify their programs. The book delves into transformative theory, leadership methodologies, models for experiential and transformational learning, and the nuts and bolts of designing immersive courses. From global experiential learning with a social justice lens to fostering partnerships for community restoration, the book navigates a vast sea of topics, leaving no stone unturned in the quest for educational excellence. Step into the realm of academic transformation and unlock the full potential of experiential learning.

The leading authorities in the field produced this comprehensive resource, which provides strategies and methods for fostering Transformative Learning (TL) practice in a wide variety of higher and adult education settings. The book answers relevant questions such as: What are effective practices for promoting TL in the classroom? What is it about TL that is most helpful in informing practice? How does the teaching setting shape the practice of TL? What are the successes, strengths, and outcomes of fostering TL? What are the risks and challenges when practicing TL in the classroom?

Transformative Social Work Practice presents an innovative and integrative approach towards critically reflective practice with an interweaving of micro, mezzo, and macro applications to real world demands. Authors Erik Schott and Eugenia L. Weiss explore issues commonly addressed by social workers, including health, mental health, addictions, schools, and family and community violence, while challenging assumptions and promoting ethically-driven, evidence-based practice perspectives to advocate for social justice and reduce disparities. The book is about redefining social work practice to meet the current and complex needs of diverse and vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in order to enhance their strengths in an era of unprecedented technological growth, globalization, and change.

Over the past few years, numerous highly ranked, Tier 1 universities across the United States have embraced the development of advanced online degrees, a niche of secondary education long held by a small group of private, for-profit universities. Rapid advances in online learning technology, increasingly sophisticated, and easy to use ‘learning management systems’ and ‘anytime, anywhere access’ has dramatically increase the demand of individuals, mostly full time employed, working professionals. This volume addresses the dramatic changes that are occurring in social work pedagogy as more schools develop online programs. The University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work launched their ‘Virtual Academic Center’ with a cohort of 80 online students. The program has now reached a ‘steady state’ of 2,200 ‘virtual’ students now representing two thirds of their MSW student population. Additionally, the school launched a doctorate of social work degree with a focus on leading and managing innovation, leading public discourse and management of large complex systems. This book essentially tells the ‘USC story’ with the challenges faced in embracing this new technology, teaching social work courses in an online environment, as well as pedagogical enhancements made by faculty in converting traditional campus based courses to the virtual environment.

With stories from the classroom, this book invites and challenges social work, human services and counseling educators to seek meaning in their methods and content in the processes of teaching. Empirically grounded, the authors propose a new model for advancing pedagogy to draw from many ways of knowing and wisdom across traditions. Through rich analysis of globalization, higher education, and the social work profession, as well as first person accounts, they co-create a story of holistic pedagogies that are being employed across the globe.

Learning and self-development is a continuous process for social workers, and practitioners must keep abreast of new knowledge, guidance and legislation in order to keep growing professionally. In this innovative text, an expert group of authors from a range of academia and practice settings highlights the importance of traditional approaches to learning, such as reflective practice and motivation, and introduces more contemporary methods such as coaching, service user participation and developing digital competence. Strongly practical in its approach, the book enables the reader to engage with the content in bite-size pieces, encouraging them to learn in whatever way works best for them. Features include: - Over 40 reflective tools, exercises and templates that can be used by learners and educators independently or in groups, in the classroom or the workplace - A wealth of case material to illustrate key points - An inspiring collection of first-hand narratives from social workers learning and developing in the field. This is an invaluable resource for educators and a must-read sourcebook for learners – be they students, newly qualified social workers or practitioners wishing to attend to their own professional development.

This ebook is a selective guide designed to help scholars and students of social work find reliable sources of information by directing them to the best available scholarly materials in whatever form or format they appear from books, chapters, and journal articles to online archives, electronic data sets, and blogs. Written by a leading international authority on the subject, the ebook provides bibliographic information supported by direct recommendations about which sources to consult and editorial commentary to make it clear how the cited sources are interrelated related. A reader will discover, for instance, the most reliable introductions and overviews to the topic, and the most important publications on various areas of scholarly interest within this topic. In social work, as in other disciplines, researchers at all levels are drowning in potentially useful scholarly information, and this guide has been created as a tool for cutting through that material to find the exact source you need. This ebook is a static version of an article from Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work, a dynamic, continuously updated, online resource designed to provide authoritative guidance through scholarship and other materials relevant to the study and practice of social work. Oxford Bibliographies Online covers most subject disciplines within the social science and humanities, for more information visit www.aboutobo.com.