[jamescw1234]

This course is the most important course you'll take in your foundation year of social work school. It is only open to social work students and like 2B03 and 2BB3, you must take this before registering for your field placement, and a C+ must be obtained in order to continue in the program. This course explores the key theories, values and skills that are vital to social work practice. We look at social work with individuals, groups, families, and communities. We also go through the various phases and issues in the helping process. We discuss dealing with ethical dillemas, the use of self, and a wide range of theories used in social work practice.

The professor is Kelly Lazure-Valconi, Kelly is perhaps one of the most intelligent professors I have had. She is the director of clinical services at Lynnwood Hall, a children's mental health facility, she also does consulting work and runs a private practice. She has been a social worker for about 30 years and has many stories and is an example of the good work that social workers do, she may seem intimidating, but she really reaffirmed by decision to become a social worker.

Course Breakdown (There is a lot, and I mean A LOT of work)

Participation-10%
Attendance is taken, and your participation is monitored in tutorial. In tutorial we have simulated interviews with upper year social work students playing clients. We interview them, and if we get suck the tutorial and our TA work collaboratively to help the student. These tutorials are very important as you learn important interviewing skills.

Mini Assignments-10%
In the first term, there are ten short mini assignments. 8 of these assignments are exercises from the textbook, one is a referral letter based on a simulated interview, the other is a case note, and the other one is an analysis of an interview you conducted. It was a lot of work for 1%, but the assignments helped you understand the process of social work.

Take Home Exam-20%
In November we have a take home exam in which we get one month to do. The take home exam should be no more, no less than 12 pages. We are asked to analyze various terms and concepts, and reflect on these. Half of this take home exam will be a case study that you must analyze from a particular theory. Outside research is expected

Problem Based Learning Assignment-10%
You will spend January doing a PBL project with your tutorial group. You will be given a case study related to a family and you are to analyze the family from a particular theory and practice perspective. The presentation should be 30 minutes and you can be as creative as you want. One group did their entire presentation as a Jeopardy game, my group has various display boards throughout the classroom and people walked around to look at the various displays. After you complete the presentation, the family is brought into your tutorial and you interview them.

Process Recording-25%
This is a 50 page essay (yes, you read that right, 50 pages). This assignment is given out 6 weeks in advance, and you should start it right away. You are to create a client, and pick someone (a family, friend, anyone) to play this client and you are to record a 30 minute interview with the client. Afterwards you do a micro analysis for various parts of the interview. You give a word for word verbatim for the parts you analyze, you talk about how the various parts made you feel, what you felt you did a good job at, what you thought needed improvement. This part is roughly 35 pages single spaced and is worth 40% of the assignment. The other 60% is a macro analysis where you analyze the interview as a whole from a particular theory and practice model. You also discuss how you maintained social work values and ethics throughout the interview. This should be about 12 pages double spaced, this is more of an essay and requires research.

Final Exam-25%
In April there is a final exam covering all readings and lectures since September. There was 60 multiple choice questions, and three short answers related to a case study. It was much easier than expected, Kelly even said it tends to bring people's marks up.

Hopefully if you're going into social work this review hasn't scared you away. While there is a lot of work, it is supposed to prepare you for professional practice where you will in fact be doing a lot of work. Kelly is one of the best professors I have had, she does a lot of work and his an amazing teacher.

do you happen to know the textbook that was used for this course? for some reason i can't access the course outlines on the social work website.

Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills by Hepworth, The Social Work Skills Workbook by Cournoyer and the Canadian Association of Social Worker's Code of Ethics (this is also available on the CASW site for free)