Spring 2026 SOWK 587 Class 15 Weekly Email
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Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn
Week 15 is asynchronous. The reading provides many case studies and practice examples. The forums focus on sharing personal experiences with clients, reflecting on case studies, and engaging with the textbook content. There is no lecture video this week.
Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate the ability to critically reflect on strategies, challenges, and interventions used in practice
- Apply course concepts to real-world scenarios by sharing and analyzing case examples
Unit Assignments
Read
- Jarolmen and Bautista-Thomas (2023) Chapter 11 Studies, Analysis, and Discussion from an Authentic School Practice Perspective
W-15 A-01: Asynchronous Participation and Engagement
The expectation is that each of your replies will be substantive and provide meaningful perspectives, contributing to the forum’s conversation and scholarship. There are four forums this week, and you are expected to make at least five replies across any of the forums. These forums include the following:
- Students connect the reading to their own practicum by sharing a personal case example in the Sharing Personal Practice Examples forum.
- In Reflecting on Case Studies, students respond to the reflective questions embedded in the student intern scenarios and offer their own analysis of cases.
- The Vignettes for Practice forum is built around two case study vignettes, inviting students to reflect critically on how they would respond to specific student situations.
- Chapter 11 Questions offers a range of discussion prompts from the end of the chapter covering topics such as treatment modalities, supervision, self-care, and evidence-based practice.
Unit Resources
I don’t think I’ll be able to grade your social policy papers as quickly as I would like. This week and next are very full of site visits, faculty interviews for a new social work faculty member, and participation in the interview process for the new Vice President of Academic Affairs (e.g., my boss’s boss), along with other committees, student meetings, etc. I did want to give a heads-up and will hopefully reach out directly to people soon, but as a general heads-up and as you think about preparing your final paper. TurnItIn reports that over half of the papers submitted appear to be 100% generated by AI. This is highly problematic. My current position and way of thinking is to offer people an opportunity to explain their use of AI. If I see artifacts of fabricated information (hallucinations), this goes absolutely against academic honesty, and they will receive a zero (likely with an opportunity to resubmit). I had to address this in the two-year class, where many students received zeros for a large paper due, citing the textbook to describe a model for planning (the PREPARE Model) that you might remember from your BSW classes. If you ask a generative model to give you a plan using the PREPARE model, it will often give you a different set of steps (e.g., “P” Problem identification, “R” Research and information gathering, etc.). This is highly problematic and directly against academic honestly. You can’t say that Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2018) describe the PREPARE model as something antithetical to what is described in the source. It is a lie. When you cite sources in your writing, my expectation is that:
- You should have access to them (i.e., you could provide evidence that you have the material)
- Have read them
- Be thoughtful about how you portray them in your writing
That being said, if there are hallucinations that I encounter, your paper will become an automatic zero, although I will likely allow you to resubmit it. Some of the papers I may accept as they are based on your explanation, or some I might refer you back to submit again based on your explained use of AI. Until I go through and closely read your papers, I won’t be able to give overly specific feedback. Because it is such a widespread problem, I wanted to give you advanced warning, as you might not have opportunities to make up your final assignment (I will likely be grading that until much closer to the final-assignment deadline to submit final grades and a problematic paper there might have to stay a zero). You can also proactively reach out to me. I much prefer to have your authentic voice, even if the quality isn’t as high… that is how you improve your writing. While I don’t know of significant practice cases yet with social workers, there are lawyers who have presented these hallucinated sources (in the form of case law) and have faced significant financial and professional problems because of it.
To-Do Lists
- Read chapter 11
- Complete five replies across any of the forums
