Catherine F. Alter

Logic Modeling: A Tool for Teaching Critical Thinking in Social Work Practice.

This article describes how logic models are used to teach critical thinking in social work courses. By breaking down the helping process into parts, logic modeling enables students to think about the clinical experience as a whole and to understand the causal relationships between these parts. Students are exposed to the connections between social work theory and practice, and they are made aware of the reciprocal connections between interventions and outcomes at the individual, organizational, community, and societal levels. The discussion of logic models in social work education is continued in the following article as well.

Logic Modeling: A Tool for Teaching Practice Evaluation.

Continuing the discussion of logic models in social work education, this article describes logic modeling as a tool for teachingevaluation skills in practice, research, and policy courses. Because logic models break down an intervention or program into parts, they inform evaluators about the kind of results and evaluation data available. This allows for an evaluation plan that deals effectively with a multisystemic project and works efficiently when time and money are limited. Three different evaluation approaches are considered—resource, process, and outcome—and the two case examples from the previous article are carried over in the discussion.

Improving the Writing Skills of Social Work Students

This article discusses the declining ability of social work students to write proficiently and offers a brief historical review of different approaches to the writing problems of American students. It describes the development of a writing assistance program at a graduate school and the program’s outcomes after its initial year. Using a global writing assessment, the authors found that 1/3 of entering MSW students had inadequate writing skills, and only 57% of these took advantage of the writing assistance offered.

Distance Education and Organizational Environment

As distance education models in social work education continue to grow, this study addresses prevalence and type of models in graduate social work programs and the perceptions of deans about the future of e-learning models of curriculum delivery. The study was an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design including a national survey of 121 deans/directors, followed by group interviews of 15 deans. Findings are that Web-based technology for delivering social work courses is increasing and predicted to grow. Interviews documented the difficulties of transforming organizational environments. Recommendations for social work leadership include convening curriculum leaders in schools of social work to work together to further technology innovations and cross institutional research.

Educating Social Work Students to Practice in the Latino Immigrant Community

Immigration from Latin America to the United States will be a political issue for many years. Because Latinos are the largest minority group in the U.S., they will continue to be a concern of social work education. Language differences, cultural distinctions, and unique political ramifications require specialized programs within social work curricula in order to enable social workers to be culturally relevant in their practice. This paper describes a curriculum designed to educate social work students to practice in Latino immigrant communities. The logic and complexity of the curriculum is discussed as well as the rationale for adding Spanish language courses to the curriculum. Finally, the educational objectives of the program are discussed as well as the results of a four-year follow-up survey of graduates of the program.