Teaching and Learning in a Time of Corona: A Social Work Experience.

Roni Berger,Kari Tabag,Estee Hirsch,Alissa Mallow,Cheryl Fiore,Chireau Toree White,Adam Schachar

doi:10.1007/s10615-021-00804-0

Roni Berger, Kari Tabag + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-021-00804-0

Copy DOI

Abstract

Preliminary results of a qualitative study of the lived experience of teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic are presented. An instructor, a program director and five doctoral students in different stages of their coursework and dissertation proposal development, wrote a reflective journal. Participants varied in their levels of familiarity with technology-assisted education, personal backgrounds and circumstances including work and family responsibilities. Participants’ journals documenting their reactions, struggles and coping since the abrupt move of the university from face to face to online classes were content analyzed. The analysis was co-conducted by five participants to identify themes and generate understanding of the experience. Two main themes emerged from the analysis: a developmental process of participants’ reactions, perceptions and meaning making of the experience and factors that shaped it. Lessons learned are discussed and recommendations for professional education and directions for future research are suggested.

Highlights

The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2019 threw higher education throughout the world into a challenging arena
A similar process occurred for faculty who reported working with the director of the center that trains and assists faculty and staff in integrating computer technologies into teaching, “We developed a plan for triage and for allocating knowledgeable faculty and IT people to support those who are paralyzed by panic.”
It has been documented that the COVID-19 pandemic is a collective trauma within the context of shared reality, i.e. where both instructor and student are exposed to the same community trauma, impacting negatively multiple aspects of everyday life, destabilizing and presenting real-life issues for everyone (Tosone, 2021)

Summary

Introduction

The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2019 threw higher education throughout the world into a challenging arena. Social work education encountered unique issues in addition to challenges universal to all academic disciplines. Such special issues were due to the experiential teaching strategies that are paramount in practice courses, the composition of the student body and the centrality of field education. A single report exists documenting the experience of MSW students shifting to distanced learning during a time of a global crisis (Tosone, 2021) To add to this extremely limited knowledge and include doctoral students’ and faculty members’ perspectives, this article reports preliminary findings from a qualitative inquiry designed to document the lived experience of teaching and learning social work curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lessons learned from the experience of moving to remote teaching and learning due to the COVID 19 pandemic can inform social work programs’ improving their preparedness for future disasters

Methods

Results

Conclusion