Dr. Sari Skolnik, assistant professor at Wurzweiler School of Social Work, has co-authored “Beyond challenges: Opportunities for enhancing group work field education” for Social Work with Groups (Dec. 12, 2021) with Dr. Louise Skolnik (Adelphi University). In the paper, they examine “the challenges and opportunities related to the teaching and learning of social work with groups in the field” and assert that “social work educators have long understood that learning the skills necessary to practice requires the experience of transforming knowledge into action under the supervision of a knowledgeable professional in an agency setting.” Here is the 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.