The Translation of Theory to Practice in the Midst of a Pandemic: Challenges in Higher Education
This is a modal window.
Das Video konnte nicht geladen werden, da entweder ein Server- oder Netzwerkfehler auftrat oder das Format nicht unterstützt wird.
Formale Metadaten
| Titel |
| |
| Serientitel | ||
| Anzahl der Teile | 55 | |
| Autor | ||
| Lizenz | CC-Namensnennung 3.0 Unported: Sie dürfen das Werk bzw. den Inhalt zu jedem legalen Zweck nutzen, verändern und in unveränderter oder veränderter Form vervielfältigen, verbreiten und öffentlich zugänglich machen, sofern Sie den Namen des Autors/Rechteinhabers in der von ihm festgelegten Weise nennen. | |
| Identifikatoren | 10.5446/50128 (DOI) | |
| Herausgeber | ||
| Erscheinungsjahr | ||
| Sprache |
Inhaltliche Metadaten
| Fachgebiet | ||
| Genre | ||
| Abstract |
|
8
10
18
25
28
34
44
45
47
00:00
Computeranimation
08:40
Computeranimation
17:15
Computeranimation
25:49
Computeranimation
Transkript: Englisch(automatisch erzeugt)
00:06
service-learning, internships, practicums, as I had stated, it incorporates interdisciplinary settings and intentionally places students in roles that they've not experienced before. Specific disciplines like ours use a
00:20
scaffolding approach that bridges theory to practice through these experiential processes. In social work, for example, experiential learning includes classroom activities in which students go into the field, volunteerism, which is required, practicums, and then these clinical internships that are much more robust. All of these situation students are
00:43
embedded in community agencies. For the Master of Social Work program, we usually use about 60 community agencies for these internship placements. So in general, experiential learning provides many
01:01
benefits to our students, as you all probably know. The process of immersion challenges their own beliefs, provides them with a wider world view, and tests biases that they come face to face with in these real-world situations. Students are faced with social injustice, are able to understand social
01:21
responsibility at a deeper level. This type of learning promotes community awareness and exposure to social issues, and in turn, again, testing those biases that they hold and encouraging social responsibility. It provides the opportunity for students to understand the environment from new perspectives. In essence, it brings theory to
01:43
practice in ways that classroom-only training just simply cannot do. Other benefits of experiential learning include workforce preparation, face-to-face interaction. They provide enrichment over concepts such as inclusive design, social responsibility, and social justice, all of which we
02:04
address in our programs. So for example, Moffett and Fletcher found that two key elements specific to influencing motivation among college students were a sense of control and personally important
02:22
content. Experiential activities provide this. They mitigate the negative effects of things like toxic stress that students bring with them. They help build resilience. These types of learning experiences provide students with some control over their choices and offer a personal
02:40
connection to chosen experiences which enhance motivation and allow them to build on learning inside and outside of the classroom. While we may think that experiential learning and these types of situations may actually produce undue stress and may make worse the
03:01
effects of toxic stress, we have found that experiencing positive stress and learning to manage new opportunities may actually offer a restorative or reparative opportunity for students who've experienced toxic stress. And that we have also found that
03:20
attendance in college may help with this healing process and provide opportunities for empowerment and gaining a sense of purpose. And Turiano and Burrow noted the importance of a sense of purpose in that early life adversity was associated with lower levels of purpose in adulthood. Collaborations occur organically in the field and
03:47
it's really important to look at unconventional partnerships such as what we're doing today to further enhance student learning. The foundation learning in our respective professions is actually grounded in
04:00
theoretical constructs and these things such as inclusive design and social justice which are underpinned by social responsibility. Inclusive means including rather than excluding people in using a product or environment. So in social work practice, interestingly
04:25
enough, much like what Dr. Julian's talking about, we are also underpinned by social justice. We didn't realize the commonalities until we've had some conversations about that. Our code of ethics requires that we work from this perspective. Social justice is
04:43
described in our code of ethics, the social work code of ethics, as the pursuit of social change on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed populations, like individuals and groups of people. Social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment,
05:01
discrimination, and other forms of injustice. In our role to promote the general welfare of society, we advocate for living conditions conducive to fulfilling people's basic needs, promoting social, economic, political, and cultural values and institutions that will promote social justice. These concepts are all foundational to
05:21
social responsibility. These concepts are also best understood from a theory to practice pedagogy in which classroom instruction is married with community-based experiences such as our internships, which have been obviously deterred because of the pandemic. One quick key question that we have is how do we navigate this
05:44
pandemic and virtual learning, and how do we ensure these abstract concepts are operationalized within the experiential learning environment? So some key issues that we face, and we feel like
06:02
higher education in general has faced with regard to this in the wake of this pandemic, have been the sudden, we had a very sudden change in our calendar and a quick move to online, as you all probably also experienced. We moved over 3,000 courses from classroom face-to-face to online back in March of last year.
06:24
That was a one-week transition, which was pretty unwieldy. We had a lack of guidelines for students in clinical settings regarding face-to-face versus virtual care. So clinically, students who were doing therapy sessions face-to-face had to move to a virtual
06:41
environment with little protocol in place provided by their agencies. We saw a reduction in available internships and types of settings available for this community-based learning opportunity. An example is that our Tennessee Department of Children's Services, which is akin to a child welfare agency, declined interns
07:01
this fall. We typically have six to ten students in those internships, and those internships are attached to paid stipends. That means that the students were getting their education paid for. They had to very quickly look for alternative ways to pay for their enrollment in the program, which was a hardship for them. Accreditation requirements for
07:22
our organizations, our departments were not being met, and our accrediting bodies made changes to accommodate the number of hours that were required in field. That was actually a bit helpful. Students experienced economic stress as well. We saw so many students where their physical and emotional health was compromised. We saw many
07:44
students unable to manage the totality of school, work, internship, family, and the worries related to the pandemic. In essence, many of our students were experiencing social and economic injustice while attempting to understand it from an external academic lens and how it affects others.
08:03
We also found that some agencies actually did want students to report to their internships, but our university had policies prohibiting that, so we had to navigate that as well. We actually now, more than ever, as you all know, have to think about the health-related
08:21
ramifications of our students and our staff, our faculty, as we plan these face-to-face interactions between students and industry. So, as Dr. Harden mentioned, the health of the students' faculties, and now we're talking about internships, so the industry professionals in the field have come into our conversations like
08:43
never before, and so we had to think about that in the actual face-to-face, if they could even occur between students and industry. We had trouble with team-based work, which has been limited, and we've had to make accommodations for that, which greatly affects the
09:00
learning process and the ability of students and capacity of students to engage with one another in creative ways. One of the things that we saw quite often was we were unable to use simulation equipment and more expensive equipment, and that diminished the robustness of the academic environment. For design, the
09:27
virtual experience is inclusive of demonstrations and observations, and we had to teach our students these best practices using an online platform, and because experiential learning immerses participants
09:44
in an active and shared learning environment, we had to really think about what we were doing in that respect. Things that we had to think about were experience and exploration by doing. What were they sharing and reflecting? How were they analyzing this
10:01
information? So that became a little bit problematic as we were taking our students and our participants through a real-life environment, and our goal was to optimize opportunities and focus on essential skills. So we did quite a bit around online
10:22
learning, as you all can well imagine. We did a lot of trainings with industry, with agencies. For example, rather than being able to talk about cognitive behavioral theory in the classroom as much, we would engage agencies to provide
10:40
workshops and trainings around that that they connect them to their internships. We used a lot of virtual tools provided that supported both the faculty and students. There were stress-related mental health workshops conducted throughout our campus, obviously virtually for students, through our counseling center. Specific discussion boards, well,
11:04
that was not me, and I apologize for whatever you're talking about. Got a little out of control. Specific discussion boards and reflective papers that bring theory to practice through critical thinking exercises have become even more important as we do this work on virtual
11:21
platforms. So we had to go and I can speak specifically for myself and add some assignments that would be more, maybe had been a speaking or a discussion in class to make sure that students were doing this in this virtual environment and
11:40
making these connections between the theoretical aspects and the real life of this virtual internship, which was very interesting. We also, unfortunately, I guess, had been able to use a lot of current events to explore concepts related to social justice, social responsibility and inclusion. So there was an operational task force
12:07
put together by the university that addressed this move to virtual learning and the issues related to the pandemic. Courses were then were now offered and you may already have been offering these. We were doing this in very minimal, I
12:21
think. I apologize, guys. I don't know why this is moving, but I am not touching it. I promise. I don't know what's happening anyway. Somebody is popping around our PowerPoint. At any rate, we had five different methods now on campus, which actually probably is a good thing that we've been
12:41
able to transition more. Conventional Web assisted remote hybrid and online accreditation bodies change some of the methodology and requirements so that we could we had to continue reporting outcomes, student led outcomes, but things like internship hours were modified for us. So typically a student would take a 400 hour
13:02
internship. They were allowed to do it for 340 hours and a 500 hour internship went to 425 hours. So for this academic year, we have 123 students in the social work department ready for internships and fill placements, 71 in our undergrad program and 52 in the graduate program.
13:22
And we're still looking for opportunities and trying to mitigate their health risk and health concerns with going back into the actual communities. It's been very difficult in social work practice. We actually have nine competencies that we have to also address. Some of those are related to ethical behavior, diversity and
13:43
addressing human rights. Translating that into a virtual environment has been very challenging. And while we can do individual sessions and individual work, we haven't really mastered the idea of looking at social change from that bigger macro picture and bringing in legislators
14:01
or other folks who are change agents in in this type of virtual setting. That's still something that we're working on for design. We have an interior design educators council that offered nationwide virtual internships and an internship,
14:23
which is basically a module based program with resources that an educator could use to create and advance an internship within their program. And it provided resources for projects assignments, but we could tailor it to each institution requirements. The COVID-19 crisis has been
14:45
incredibly disruptive in face-to-face interaction, but through these module types applications, we were able to navigate the process. The university used a number of resources to support the transition for our internships, and they've
15:04
been extremely supportive for internships and these experiential learning opportunities. Resiliency made it work, but in some respects there's no real replacement for some of this face-to-face learning, and things just have to be done face-to-face. But the ability of the
15:23
students and the faculty in industry, especially industry, to adapt has made it as successful as possible. For us, the CARES, there was certain CARES funding specifically for experiential learning and our E-Engage that tailored to that
15:42
effect. And Dr. Harden alluded to economic distress, so there's some specific allowances for housing, food, and services for our students as well. So really, I think what it has taken,
16:00
other than just this immeasurable mobilization of larger bureaucratic organizations, which has been pretty amazing to watch, we've had to really increase our creativity and our flexibility and be open to novel ideas, ensure opportunities for students to discuss theory in the context of these virtual practice settings, either through
16:22
video conferencing, using other things like Dropbox, online discussion boards, and this means that our instructors, myself included, must provide better and more appropriate prompts and inquiries so that it really engages the student from that theoretical perspective when we're not
16:40
having them kind of captured in the classroom for those discussions. We've used photos, video recordings to assist students in the field with depicting their experiences through this theoretical lens, added support to field agencies and industry, which has included conferencing and opportunities with professionals and students to actually work together in workshop settings,
17:03
readiness for students who need accommodations or those who are not technologically adept has been a big challenge and we've worked on that, ensuring that our agencies have access to the appropriate technology, for example, software, as Dr. Julian talked about, some of that software was only
17:22
available on campus. So there were some technology things that occurred to help promote access to that. It really has been important that faculty be open, flexible, and creative through this process more than ever. And, you know, we have got to assist students and we've
17:42
found that we have had to assist students and provide some dispensation to them as they're also navigating this pandemic themselves and continually reminding ourselves of the unique issues and needs that they're also facing. So that kind of wraps us up for when we talk some about our challenges and the things that
18:02
we've tried to do. We're happy to open for questions. I think it appears we've got about seven minutes. The last slide provides our references, some things that we referred to. So I guess I'll open the conversation and see if there are any discussions.
18:21
Thank you very much, Christy and Vicki. I thought it was fascinating to see because, I mean, it's obviously an extreme challenge if you have such a hands-on cause of education and a cause of education that is supposed to enable people to apply their knowledge and they lose
18:42
the opportunities to exercise that. So I saw that we have a couple of questions in the chat. So, you want to address that Vicki, Dr. Hardin? Sure. I think Philip is going to. Yeah. So the first question from from Regina was about the question whether you think that
19:01
you'll keep some of the things that you have now learned about essentially in the future. So are there things that you want to keep on in your in your courses of study? Yeah, absolutely. I think one thing I'm currently working on is some best practices around virtual clinical activities. So for example,
19:22
some of our agencies had some protocols in place because they've been doing telehealth types of things, but not where they could actually shadow and monitor students in the course of these virtual therapy sessions. So I'm working on some best practices based on some of our code of ethics and different
19:40
things so that we can do trainings with our with our agencies. I think as a university, we have embraced online learning more than before. As a matter of fact, some of the coursework, what I've just been told, and I think Dr. Julian, you may have heard this as they're looking at adding more online courses or
20:01
virtual learning opportunities. So that was a big shift for us. We had some in pockets, but not at the level that we look like we're going to be doing. So I think it has opened us up to more opportunity. Thank you very much. The next question is from Gabby. She was
20:20
wondering whether you were in touch with other universities domestically or internationally. So is that something that has maybe helped you navigate the pandemic in some way? I would say the first thing I did is call my colleagues, everybody that I could think of in and out of my program, not just
20:43
design, but other disciplines, to see how they were faring. And we fared better than most. I was thinking that our particular institutions, some of the faculty had layoffs. They had to take on what they call overloads,
21:02
increased normal classes. We were taking on double sections, but they were furloughs. And we all discussed what we could do within our disciplines and out of our disciplines to be creative with our coursework. Definitely. I would say North America and some
21:26
of my colleagues outside globally as well. How about you, Dr. Hardin? Gabby, our graduate level social work program that prepares people to be clinicians is actually part of a three-university consortium with two other
21:40
schools in the state of Tennessee. So we immediately sort of gathered that consortium together and made some plans around serving those students. We share students so they can actually register for classes between the three universities. So that was our first big, I think, task and challenge that we had to overcome. So absolutely we have. And we've
22:01
also been in contact with universities across the United States. I haven't personally been in touch with universities outside of the states at this point, but I'm very interested to know how they're navigating this as well. Thank you very much. So the next question was whether there were changes in the
22:21
tuition. I think you said that some of your students receive stipends for doing work during their course of study. So that would mean they put in work to have their studies paid for if they cannot do that work. So are there possibilities for them to have less of a financial burden for these limited, probably in
22:42
some ways limited courses of study? Yeah. Unfortunately, with those stipend programs, the state of Tennessee was paying those, and they chose not to. So our students had to get pretty creative. But within the university, they did do some, I think they did some reimbursements and that type of
23:01
thing to help offset the cost. And they provided some funds, I guess you would say, to help students address their immediate basic needs that they weren't able to address. And some of the students actually got refunds. I remember seeing, I have two adult children who were in college, and I remember
23:22
them saying that they got a $600 rebate or stipend or something back from their tuition. So they got, yes. So there were some, there were ways of addressing the question of whether all the tuition is sort of necessary if the experience isn't at 100 percent. Okay, thank
23:41
you very much. So and the final question from the chat is, if it's in general possible to translate some of the things that students would do normally in their practical activities to digital or online context, the example that Berthe uses is the question of consulting. So are you thinking about trying to transition things into the online
24:02
world to tackle the pandemic and to tackle education during the pandemic? We have certainly had to do that. So we helped agencies set up confidentiality compliance settings where the student can log in and a client or a patient
24:21
can log in and do sessions online like that. And then they've done some telephone work with folks, with clients in different settings. So we are definitely in the process of making those types of accommodations. I hope I'm answering your question, Berthe. It's a little tricky because of confidentiality
24:41
and FERPA and privacy, but we're working on it. Well, it sounds like a domain where you have your work cut out for you, because obviously managing these formal requirements alongside the question of how to provide good education is obviously a very, very big challenge. Well, people are already thanking
25:04
you heartily in the chat, and I think I can only chime in with that. It was a very, very nice presentation, and I personally found it very interesting because the challenges are many fold, and I think yours are very, very particularly meaningful
25:23
because obviously trying to provide education that will serve the community is something that is very important, and it's something that has been put under a lot of pressure by the pandemic. So thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you for attending and thank you for asking those relevant questions.
25:42
Yes, thank you all. We just appreciate so much your time and attention. We know it's valuable. Thank you for this opportunity.