Shaping MSW Students' Professional Identity through Field Learning Engagement: The Mediation Effect of Perceived Competence

Background and Purpose: In light of Student Engagement theory, much research has testified students’ learning engagement impacts their learning outcomes. In social work education, students’ competence and professional identity might be two learning outcomes after their practice learning. Some studies reveal the relationships between students’ behavioral engagement (learning activities) and their competence, while other studies tap into the relationship of emotional engagement (achievement motivation) and their competence. However, limited studies focus on the relationships among the students’ field learning engagement, their competence, and professional identity. The first objective of this study is to investigate such relationships in Chinese Master of Social Work (MSW) students. The second objective is to test the mediation role of competence in the relationship of learning engagement and professional identity.

Methods: Data were collected using a cross-sectional design with on-line questionnaires sent administered in all the 61 MSW programs in Mainland China and all the full-time MSW students (1652 in total), who graduated in 2015. Theoretically guided structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among the key latent variables and the mediation effect. Based on Student Engagement theory, a structural model was built to examine the direct and indirect effects of students’ cognitive, agentic, behavioral, and emotional engagement on their professional identity as well as the mediating effect of their perceived competence via bootstrap 2000.

Results: 848 MSW students (from 57 MSW programs (93.4% of the total 61 programs) have participated in the study (73.6% female, 62.5% with BSW degree, and 88.4% from families of annual household income below USD16, 200). Response rate is 51.3% (848/1652). The results showed the positive direct effect of students’ cognitive, agentic, behavioral, and emotional engagement on their professional identity areβ= .27***,β= .16***,β= .28***, and β= .27*** respectively. Students’ perceived competence had a partial mediation effect on the relationships between the four types of learning engagement and professional identity (βchanged to .19**, .14*, .20**, .21** respectively). Fit indexes of the structural model showed adequate model fit (CFI = .974; AGFI = .945; RMSEA =.049; SRMR = .030) with three variables: learning engagement, perceived competence (R² = .50), and professional identity (R²= .59).

Conclusion and Implication: Students’ learning engagement, including cognitive, agentic, behavioral, and emotional engagement, has unique direct effect on their professional identity, enriching our theoretical understanding of social work students’ professional identity through student engagement perspective in the practice learning. The mediation effect of perceived competence on the relationship of field learning engagement and professional identity highlighted the mechanism of how students’ practice learning shapes their professional identity via perceived competence. For social work students, it is suggested to fully engage their field learning which has great positive impact on their competence as well as professional identity. In addition, social work educators may facilitate students’ engagement from cognitive, agentic, behavioral, and emotional perspectives.