Arthur Chickering is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at Memphis State University. On leave from the Directorship of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Memphis State, he is Visiting Professor at George Mason University. Zelda Gamson is a sociologist who holds appointments at the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: Faculty Inventory. Institutional Inventory.

Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing, and Improving Assessment in Higher Education

Networked learning is learning in which information and communications technology (ICT) is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources. Networked learning is an area which has great practical and theoretical importance. It is a rapidly growing area of educational practice, particularly in higher education and the corporate sector. This volume brings together some of the best research in the field, and uses it to signpost some directions for future work. The papers in this collection represent a major contribution to our collective sense of recent progress in research on networked learning. In addition, they serve to highlight some of the largest or most important gaps in our understanding of students perspectives on networked learning, patterns of interaction and online discourse, and the role of contextual factors. The range of topics and methods addressed in these papers attests to the vitality of this important field of work. More significant yet is the complex understanding of the field that they combine to create. In combination, they help explain some of the key relationships between teachers and learners intentions and experiences, the affordances of text-based communications technologies and processes of informed and intelligent educational change.

Advances in Research on Networked Learning

Street children of Bombay: their stresses and strategies of coping

Background: This article reports the findings from a comparative study investigating smoking behaviours among institutionalised psychiatric populations from a sociological perspective.Method: The study involved participant observation of two separate Australian sites between 1999 and 2002, the second site serving to generalise the findings from the first site.Discussion and conclusions: Systemic barriers to quitting were identified, emanating from the mental health system in general. Cigarettes were identified as the currency by which economic, social and political exchange took place between participants who described an enculturation process that involved complex processes of reinforcement to smoke. Once entered into, escape from the smoking culture of the settings appeared to be extremely difficult for clients and staff.

Systemic barriers to quitting smoking among institutionalised public mental health service populations: a comparison of two Australian sites.

Using the Schwandt and Halpern model of auditing a constructivist study, the article describes an audit from the perspectives of both the auditor and the inquirer requesting the audit. Presented are the steps of the audit as enacted, the issues raised during the experience, and recommendations for those seeking and performing audits of construc tivist inquiries.

Auditing Constructivist Inquiry: Perspectives of Two Stakeholders

The field experience is understood to be pivotal in social work education. In this qualitative study, BSW students reflected on their learning outcomes and processes in their field experiences. They highlighted how their work in agencies helped them to operationalize social work values and ethics, develop an awareness of themselves as social workers, and enhanced their confidence. Implications for strengthening the practicum experience though more reflective experiences and enhancing the preparation of field instructors is discussed.

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I Found Myself at this Practicum: Student Reflections on Field Education

Many people and events have contributed to a renewed focus on policy practice in social work and social work education, culminating in the inclusion of policy practice as one of the ten core social work competencies in the 2008 Council on Social Work Education EPAS. Robert Schneider, founder of Influencing State Policy, was a key player in elevating policy practice, particularly at the state level, in light of the increasing devolution of social policy decision-making to the states. Other social workers and educators created opportunities for policy scholars and practitioners to collaborate, including Leon Ginsberg and the Policy Conference that he and others initiated. Now a new generation of policy practitioners will continue to educate social workers in policy practice skills in the pursuit of social justice

http://advancesinsocialwork.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/download/16678/16878

Reemergence of Policy Practice: A Journey Back to our Roots

Recently, higher education has focused on “learning communities.” This
study examines a process in which students create expectations for their community of learners. The expectations provide the basis for assessment of students and the
program. Across three cohorts, common themes arise. The major themes from students’ expectations of faculty are that faculty should be organized, use a variety of
teaching methods, and provide mentoring. Students primarily want their peers to
participate actively and constructively in class, have academic honesty, and contribute to class in a civil, respectful manner . Study findings indicate that students are
empowered in finding their collective voice and holding each other accountable for
classroom community. Using the transformative power of a learning community to
improve both student classroom behaviors and faculty teaching appears to be a
promising practice.

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The Transformative Power of a Learning Community

The Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) combines
social work educational policies and accreditation standards within a single document.
The EPAS establishes guidelines for baccalaureate and masters’ level social
work education throughout the United States. In this article, the authors discuss the
implications of the EPAS for Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programs. They focus
especially upon those aspects of the EPAS that relate to foundation-level program
objectives and curriculum content.

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Katharine V. Byers

Papers

Auditing Constructivist Inquiry: Perspectives of Two Stakeholders

I Found Myself at this Practicum: Student Reflections on Field Education

Reemergence of Policy Practice: A Journey Back to our Roots

The Transformative Power of a Learning Community

The 2001 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards: Issues and Opportunities for BSW Education