Everything But the Kitchen Sink: Making Sense Out of Social Work Education Outcome Assessment

Abstract

This chapter discusses current challenges in social work education outcome assessment in regards to targeting different dimensions of learning (e.g., knowledge, values, skills, and cognitive and affective processes, CSWE, Educational policy and accreditation standards for Baccalaureate and Master’s Social Work Programs. https://cswe.org/getattachment/Accreditation/Standards-and-Policies/2015-EPAS/2015EPASandGlossary.pdf, 2016, p. 6) in relationship to social work education competencies. Outcome assessment plans must consider how to measure each of these learning dimensions separately, while also evaluating how they contribute to students’ overall capacity for social work practice. Because much of the learning in social work programs takes place outside of the traditional classroom, that is, in the field, outcome assessment plans must consider how to achieve valid and reliable results from measures completed by field instructors. As interprofessional education becomes more prevalent, social work competencies mastery must be differentiated from other outcomes when evaluating learning in curriculum areas that are shared with other disciplines. The chapter proceeds to discuss challenges evaluating the learning via distributed education. The author describes outcome assessment strategies, including utilization of CSWE resources, for valid and efficient assessment of learning, development of unique tools to assess values, E-learning, and specialized content areas (e.g., interdisciplinary practice of social work), respectively.