Using Community-Engaged Learning in High-Resistance Social Work Courses

Abstract

Undergraduate social work students often have anxiety and aversion to research methods and macro or community-level content. Community-engaged learning (CEL) projects involve an experiential approach to teaching that addresses community needs and have shown promise as a high-impact practice in social work and related disciplines. The present study uses a qualitative design to examine a threaded CEL project executed across two undergraduate courses: Social Work Research Methods, and Community and Organizational Practice. By analyzing reflection essays with a deductive, two-cycle coding strategy, investigators sought to understand how the CEL project affected students’ anxiety, interest, and self-efficacy. Overall, essays illustrated that real-world experience of the CEL process effectively increased interest and self-efficacy while reducing anxiety among students about course content. Implications for implementation and future research are discussed.