400

Building upon Child Welfare: History, Theory, and Practice, this course engages students in a practice-based, problem-solving approach to child welfare. Each week, students work with child welfare scenarios to reinforce practical child welfare skills. This course applies practice skills related to the continuum of care in child welfare practice - from assessment to planning to intervention - focusing on a culturally responsive and multi-systemic lens. Students use theories and conceptual frameworks to solve practical and ethical problems in child welfare practice. This course focuses on child welfare practice generally, and, as practiced in the State of Illinois specifically.

This is the second course in a two-semester course sequence: Child Welfare: History, Theory, and Practice is offered in the Fall and is a prerequisite for this course. Successful completion of the two-semester sequence qualifies for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services child welfare certification program.

This course introduces students to the purposes, goals and logic of social science thinking. Instruction focuses on understanding and interpreting the social work ethical obligation of evidence-based practice, research design, quantitative and qualitative analysis in the social work context, and illustrating the use of research in advocating for new programming, funding, and policy on behalf of at-risk populations.  The course is oriented toward providing students skills that can be used in learning how to evaluate the student's own practice in the future and in critiquing the research of others. The advanced writing requirement of the General Education Curriculum is successfully completed in this course.

This course is designed to integrate theory, principles and values with actual practice. Students take this course concurrently with the field work internship, relating prior classroom learning as it is applied and using different methods in a variety of fields of practice. The course provides students an opportunity to demonstrate that they can fully integrate academic knowledge with direct, professional responsibilities. Emphasis is placed on students' evaluating their own professional performance.

This course reinforces social work knowledge and values by providing 450 hours of experience in community agencies during the semester. Students and designated field work instructors, supported by a university field education director, design an experience that integrates and enhances course work and promotes entry into the social work profession. Students work and learning experience is directed by the field work instructor in collaboration with the department's field education director.