Navigating the Social Jungle: Using Computer-Mediated Mentoring to Enhance Undergraduates' Professional Identity

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges to undergraduate social work education is helping students embrace social work values and develop professional identity. As undergraduates, students are at a developmental stage where the process of identity formation is crucial. This study explores the possibility of enhancing traditional teaching methods with computer-mediated mentoring. A section of graduate students in a second-year practice class mentored a section of undergraduates in a beginning practice class in a semester-long e-mail communication. Following the mentoring experience, the undergraduates demonstrated a measurably greater identification with social work values, marking a significant change in professional identity that was not matched by comparison groups. Those aspects of the mentoring experience that seemed most important to the undergraduates are reported and suggestions for replicating such a project are provided.