Friday, 14 January 2005 - 2:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Attitudes and Skills in Social Work Practice

Active Learning Strategies Promote Positive Beliefs about Clients

We address the issue of how to promote a positive worker/client relationship among social work paraprofessionals delivering a welfare-to-work (WtW) intervention to welfare clients. We demonstrate that use of active-learning strategies that build self-efficacy have a positive effect on how paraprofessionals perceive their clients. We hypothesize that use of active learning strategies also facilitates intervention implementation and fidelity.

Theoretical Frame: Shulman (1993) proposes that the client and the social worker influence each other in a reciprocal manner. The skill of the social worker and the client’s feelings about the social worker play a critical role in determining client outcomes (Shulman, 1993). Yet, much less is known about how the social worker’s feelings towards clients might play a role in shaping the client/worker relationship. We propose that building worker self-efficacy will promote positive views of clients.

Current Study: We examine a training program for social work paraprofessionals (called “trainers”) delivering a WtW intervention to welfare clients. An innovative approach was taken to preparing the paraprofessionals leading the intervention. Rather than focus solely on adherence to following the intervention manual, the training process utilized the same processes and highlighted the principles underlying the intervention, namely building self-efficacy and mastery. In this way, training of the paraprofessionals closely reflected the psychological theories on which the intervention was grounded.

Method: Thirty paraprofessionals participated in a two-week training conducted by a master trainer. A questionnaire was administered during the first hour of the workshop (Time 1); at the workshop conclusion (Time 2); and two months after they had delivered the intervention to clients at least once (Time 3).

Instrument: The questionnaire assessed demographic variables, experience as a trainer, beliefs in various effective training principles and strategies that are part of the active learning process, and perceptions of clients’ ability and motivation.

Results: All results indicated substantial and statistically significant increases from Time 1 to Time 2 in trainers’ adoption of the WtW intervention learning process principles. Trainers demonstrated substantial and significant increases in believing in the clients’ ability and motivation to learn, develop, and implement job search strategies. In all instances the magnitude of the changes approached or exceeded a full effect size (Cohen, 1977; Lipsey, 1990). Moreover, the adoption of the intervention training principles and beliefs persisted and remained high Time 3, after the experience of conducting the intervention as trainers.

Importance for Social Work Education: This paper demonstrates use of a specific training strategy that has a positive influence on the worker/client relationship. We show that active learning encourages paraprofessionals to see their clients as able and motivated. We hypothesize that positive changes in beliefs enhances client skill acquisition and performance. Furthermore, paraprofessionals trained in a manner consistent with the intervention internalize the intervention principles and adhere to them over time, thus maintaining intervention fidelity. We conclude with the suggestion that social work education and training make use of active learning strategies and efficacy theory in order to contribute to workers’ views of client change and client outcomes.

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