Abstract:

Graduate social work students must be able to fulfill the mission of working to promote social justice on micro and macro levels. While students are often excited in clinical practice courses, they don’t often see the connection between clinical practice and how it’s impacted by larger systems. As such they do not always share the same enthusiasm in macro practice courses where the focus shifts from direct practice with individuals to understanding the impact of larger systems such as organizations and communities. Being in an asynchronous online environment poses even greater challenges in keeping students engaged.

Objectives:
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the use of case studies relating to organizational concerns and practices in advancing learning outcomes, which include student engagement and higher order thinking in problem solving. Case based learning has been used across various disciplines, and traditionally in social work practice courses where students gain the knowledge and skills to effectively problem solve with clients. The instructor/researcher hypothesized that case-based method may also ignite students to become problem solvers on macro levels through promoting engagement and collaboration in the online environment, using higher level processes in analyzing and decision making in larger systems.

Methodology:
Guided by constructivist principles promoting a learning-centered approach, the instructor integrated real problem cases related to organizations and communities in a first year graduate social work macro practice course. The instructor assigned cases to students in teams of two or three, based on class size, and a specific week for presentation. Students were expected to collaborate on summarizing and presenting the case in terms of a framework on 1) problem, 2) population and 3) arena. They then created and facilitated discussion questions based on their assigned case throughout their assigned week. The instructor created an instrument that included questions guided by the Active Learning in Health Professions Scale (ALHPS: Kammer, Schreiner, Kim & Denial, 2015), measuring didactic reasoning and didactic strategies, the focus of this paper. Toward the end of the course, students were given a link to Qualtrics, an online survey delivery system insuring anonymity, that included an implied consent form and information about the study.

Results:
Twenty students participated in the study. Findings supported the hypothesis that case-based learning enhanced student engagement and higher order thinking needed in social work practice across systems. Results include the distinction of facilitating discussions and simply participating, in addition to qualitative feedback on the case study method. Strengths and limitations are discussed, including the timing of the survey.

Keywords:

Case studies, constructivism, active learning, macro practice social work, online environment.