Issues uncovered in a 3-year action-research project that placed social workers and graduate students in community police departments were selection of staff and students, attitudes about the law, confidentiality, motivating the reluctant client, and sensitivity to police-social worker perceptions of each other. (JT)

Issues and opportunities concerning innovation and curriculum change in developing a graduate program are examined critically, based on an experiment at the University of Hawaii School of Social Work. Focus is on the rationale, role of faculty and students, innovations in class and field teaching, and likely future directions. (Author/LBH)

Describes rationale, organization, and requirements of urban/rural mini-semester, a field experience program which provides social work students at Elizabethtown College (Pennsylvania) with an appreciation of both rural and urban social welfare systems. Suggests how other colleges/universities, regardless of size, could implement this curriculum…

Increasingly, courses are offered in social treatment that combine research, practice, and fieldwork. Problems of planning such courses are related to student disinterest, fear of loss of traditional skills, and uncertainty about the knowledge base. Three structures for combining these do exist, using loose to close coordination of elements. (MSE)

Social work training in West Germany and the United Kingdom are compared. In the UK fieldwork is mandatory and practitioners contribute to the pass/fail grade of the student. In West Germany, the social work student has to choose between academic standing or registered practitioner status. (MLW)

A survey of 70 social work programs found increasing numbers of field placements in private for-profit organizations, mostly hospitals, nursing homes, and outpatient health care agencies. Geographic location appears to be linked to policy on such placements. More attention to site selection and curriculum are recommended as this trend grows. (MSE)

Barriers to the natural evolution of nonsexist field experience for social work students are examined, including both those endemic to the systems and individuals involved in the program. It is recommended that faculty initiate change in these conditions. (MSE)

At Hunter College an alternative master's program for social workers who cannot give up employment for full-time study replaces the traditional scheduling with three flexible time periods: pre-fieldwork and post-fieldwork, part-time coursework, and one-year, four-day-a-week fieldwork experience in the place of employment. (MSE)

This article describes a system recently introduced in Britain for training and certifying social work field instructors. The system addresses concerns about the quantity of competent field instructors and the quality of social work field education. Its impact on field education in the United Kingdom and implications for social work programs and…

This article describes a sequential criterion-referenced assessment tool that can be used by social work students in field work and field instructors in evaluating student progress over a semester, a process benefiting both groups. The system provides students with periodic self-administered, self-scored tests. Development and sustained use of the…

Based on a review of literature on social work field learning and analysis of current data on student performance criteria, eight learning objectives for field study were identified. The objectives reflect traditional concepts and contemporary demands on the profession. A student field performance evaluation method using the objectives is…

Offers a model of social-work education that infuses multicultural content into the field curriculum and enhances faculty diversity. One school's field-practice seminars integrate diversity training by pairing community facilitators with faculty facilitators to increase instructors' awareness of diversity; offering ongoing workshops to train…

This article examines the impact of social work education on the social policy preferences of social work students through a panel study of 3 cohorts of students at universities in 2 countries--the United States and Israel. The findings of the study indicate that though the initial policy preferences of the students at the beginning of their…

This document investigates the successful effort to develop and implement a strategy for obtaining a performance-oriented training program for Barry College School of Social Work Field instructors. The mission of the project was to create a system of influence to concert activity so that the educational policy of the school could be shaped to…

The Community Learning Center Project, a multicultural training program, is presented as a successful model for the acquisition of culturally relevant social work practice competencies. Cultural pluralism is presented as the underlying framework for the project. The design and model of an evaluation study of the project are described. (Author/MLW)