As part of a community-based survey of 529 homeless adults, the authors analyzed factors associated with their use of mental health services. Homeless persons who had had a previous psychiatric hospitalization were the least likely to sleep in an emergency shelter, had been homeless nearly twice as long as the rest of the sample, had the worst mental health status, used alcohol and drugs the most, and were the most involved in criminal activities. The majority had not made an outpatient mental health visit in 5 years. It is suggested that diverse systems of care are needed for homeless persons.

Mental health, alcohol and drug use, and criminal history among homeless adults

What activities are associated with MSW students’ performance in the field, perceptions of the quality of field instruction, and satisfaction with the field? Sixty-four MSW students reported on observational-participatory and conceptual linkage learning activities used in their first- and second-year placements. Greater use of some activities was associated with satisfaction and perception of quality but not with field instructors’ ratings of student performance. This study highlights the importance to students of both doing and understanding, and suggests the need to distinguish student perceptions from performance.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/23043851.pdf

Student Learning Processes in Field Education: Relationship of Learning Activities to Quality of Field Instruction, Satisfaction, and Performance Among MSW Students

For this study, 188 students from 4 social work programs completed a questionnaire about their motivation and performance in field practicum. Achievement motivation included task value, intrinsic motivation, perception of task difficulty, confidence, and self-efficacy. Students were more satisfied with field education and rated their social work skills higher if they valued what they learned in field (task value), took pleasure in field activities (intrinsic motivation) and had a greater sense of self-efficacy about field tasks. However, achievement motivation was unrelated to field instructor evaluation of student skills. Discussion includes suggestions for increasing student achievement motivation.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/23044036.pdf

Achievement Motivation and Outcome in Social Work Field Education

This article reports on the results of two surveys that asked BSW and MSW students to evaluate the supervision provided by their field instructors at two points during their practicum. Students responded to a variety of questions pertaining to the supervisory assignments and activities of their field instructor. The author discusses the relationship between supervisory skills and students’ perceptions of enhanced learning. Early in the practicum, activities reported as most helpful to students were those that introduced them to the agency and clarified expectations of their performance. At the end of their experience, students perceived as most helpful those activities which helped them to be self-critical and to link classroom and field learning.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/23043603.pdf

The Process of Field Instruction: Bsw and Msw Students' Views of Effective Field Supervision

Domestic violence reportedly affects more than 5 million Americans each year, more than 85% of whom are women. Many of these women turn to their faith-based communities for support and guidance, but little is known about how the church members they turn to perceive or understand domestic violence. This article reports the outcomes of three focus groups in three diverse communities of faith in the African American community that resulted in a better understanding of how church leaders and congregants view spirituality and religion and how they converge with domestic violence. Implications for research and practice are presented for domestic violence intervention

Spiritual and Religious Abuse: Expanding What is Known About Domestic Violence

Teaching in the affective domain is required to facilitate development in the values, ethics, aesthetics, and feelings of social work students. It is arguably the most complicated type of teaching as it integrates cognition, behavior, and feelings. This paper presents an overview of affective learning as well as a pedagogical taxonomy for use in designing and delivering instruction in the affective domain. A sample lesson plan used to teach social justice and strategies for evaluating affective learning are also reviewed.

Affective learning: A taxonomy for teaching social work values

Though seemingly old-fashioned compared to modern methods of discerning professional development, process recordings offer many benefits for social work faculty, field instructors, and students ali...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/23043036

Process Recordings: Fine-Tuning an Old Instrument

This study discusses the pretest and posttest results of a batterer's intervention program (BIP) implemented within a California state prison substance abuse program (SAP), with a recommendation for further programs to be implemented within correctional institutions. The efficacy of utilizing correctional facilities to reach offenders who self-report domestic violence behaviors is evaluated. The 52-week curriculum was designed to address the unique environment of a correctional setting and the characteristics of the participants, using established psycho-educational and cognitive-behavioral methods. A repeated measurement design was used to evaluate the participants' cognitive changes, including acceptance of personal responsibility for abusive behaviors. Using a modified Abusive Behavior Inventory along with Criminal Thinking Scales, participants were tested at intake and again at 18 sessions. Their responses were statistically significant to p < .01.

Implementing a Batterer's Intervention Program in a Correctional Setting: A Tertiary Prevention Model

IntroductionIn Kern County, California, there is more than a 30% chance (1) that a student will be suspended prior to graduation. The likelihood of suspension also means that there is the potential for multiple suspensions and even expulsion since each suspension places the student academically further behind. For example, during the 2011-2012 school year, the Kern (California) Union High School District (KUHSD) averaged thirty-one suspensions per one hundred students - a rate three times the state average (1), and seven times the last recorded national average in 2006. That same year, the KUHSD expelled 2,578 students (about 7% of the approximately 37,000 student body) (2). In fact, the KUHSD has consistently led the state in suspensions and expulsions since at least 2006 (3).These numbers are not unique to Kern County however, and approaches to discipline such as these have been utilized within public education in the United States for at least the past half a century. Beginning in the 1950s, approaches focusing on groups dynamics (4), or utilizing the concepts of Democracy and the idea of teachers correcting students' mistaken goals (5), were popularized. These approaches yielded in the 1970s to the more structured strategies of assertive discipline proposed by Canter and Canter (6), which flourished for the next two decades. Then, Curwin and Mendler (7) introduced the notion of categorizing discipline programs according to their intended focus: with obedience models focusing on rules and consequences, and responsibility models aimed at the acquisition of skills to make independent and responsible choices. Despite their differences, however, they all shared one feature: exclusionary discipline practices. Further, exclusionary discipline (i.e., suspension and expulsion) continues to be a mainstay of public education, and its use has actually increased dramatically in recent years.However, there is a large body of research documenting both the ineffectiveness of exclusionary discipline in reducing undesired behaviors, and its association to additional negative consequences for the students receiving it, as briefly detailed below. Perhaps even more surprising is the virtual absence of any studies supporting the efficacy of its use.Exclusionary discipline is used inappropriatelyFor over two decades, researchers have maintained that exclusionary practices have a place, but should only be used for the most dangerous and destructive behaviors displayed by students (8). These recommendations are not reflected in the contemporary use of suspensions and expulsions, however. In fact, Ryan, Peterson, Tetreault, and van derHagen (9) found that exclusion was frequently being used more for students leaving an assigned area and class disruptions, than for violent behaviors. "Zero Tolerance" policies were instituted in the mid1990s in response to perceived increases in school violence and may partially account for increased implementations of suspensions and expulsions (10). Still, the use of exclusionary discipline practices for relatively minor offenses persists despite research indicating that they are ineffective, administered in a biased way, and may interfere with some student's normal development (11).Research supporting the past use of exclusionary school-wide programs is limited. Assertive discipline used during the 1970s and 1980s, (6) was the most popular school-wide discipline approach yet subsequent studies concluded that the "evidence" for its use was either misleading, reported selectively, or altogether absent, and found no evidence of its efficacy. (12).Exclusionary discipline is administered in a biased wayIn addition, exclusionary discipline is disproportionally overrepresented by African American (or other students of color) students (12), students with disabilities (13), and children living below the poverty line (14), without any evidence that these groups misbehave at higher rates (15). …

Keep Them So You Can Teach Them: Alternatives to Exclusionary Discipline

What is research? - the question literature review justification of the study variables hypotheses research design sampling research protocol bias data data collection forms data analysis and statistical procedures protection of human participants reporting results administrative arrangements/agreements limitations of the study.

Bruce D. Friedman

Papers

Affective learning: A taxonomy for teaching social work values

Process Recordings: Fine-Tuning an Old Instrument

Implementing a Batterer's Intervention Program in a Correctional Setting: A Tertiary Prevention Model

Keep Them So You Can Teach Them: Alternatives to Exclusionary Discipline

The Research Tool Kit: Putting it All Together