Empowering Students in a Graduate-Level Social Work Course

Abstract

A fundamental responsibility of social workers is to empower clients to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Social work educators can best teach this concept by empowering their students. This article describes the results of a quasi-experimental study that compared students' perceptions of empowerment in two sections of a graduate social work course at a large public university in Spring 1997. One section was taught through a traditional format of lectures, exams, and papers; the other through techniques intended to empower students: learning contracts, formative evaluations, and narrative evaluations. The authors conclude that student perception of empowerment is positively affected by these teaching techniques.