Fall 2025 SOWK 581 Week 01: Introduction to Social Work Practice with Individuals, Families, & Groups

title: Fall 2025 SOWK 581 Week 01: Introduction to Social Work Practice with Individuals, Families, & Groups date: 2025-08-25 13:38:31 location: Heritage University tags:

Heritage University
MSW Program
SOWK 581 presentation_video: > “” description: >

Welcome to the first official week of your MSW program and SOWK 581. This class is one of the more clinically focused classes you will take, and I look forward to learning and growing together. This week is asynchronous. I have a lecture video that introduces students to this class, covering your activities in general and for this week. Each week, you will have asynchronous learning tasks to engage in. Every other week, we will also meet in person to practice skills. Students will read the first chapter of Cooper and Granucci Lesser (2022), which outlines the theoretical basis for clinical social work, and engage in forum reflections on this topic, as well as the nature of clinical practice.

Agenda for Lecture Video:

Getting settled into the class
Reviewing the syllabus
Scholarship
Developing clinical practice

The learning objectives this week include:

To identify the structure of this course, the assignments used to facilitate learning and demonstrate competency, and what to expect this semester.
To understand the expectations around academic integrity.
Consider strategies you can implement to improve your clinical practice.
Evaluate experiences and knowledge regarding clinical practice
Gain knowledge and awareness regarding clinical practice definitions and related social worker standards.
Appreciate the evolution of different theoretical models.

Content for Week One

I have content for you to engage with

Read Cooper and Granucci Lesser (2022) Chapter 1: Theoretical Base for Clinical Social Work Practice
Read Bloeser et al. (2023) Defining Clinical Social Work and its Implications for Practice
Read National Association of Social Workers (2025) NASW Standards for Clinical Social Work in Social Work Practice
Watch my lecture video (will be added Monday)

Forums for you to write in:

I want this program to be a place where we build community, the forum Introductions and Getting Started starts that conversation.
We all have Preconceived Notions of Clinical Practice, and this forum gives you space to share yours.
The forum Reflecting on the NASW Standards and Licensing for Clinical Practice looks to explore how clinical practice is defined in our profession.
The authors provide some reflection questions you can respond to Chapter 01 Reflection Questions.
I want to encourage you to look into and share your findings about some of the theories provided in this week’s reading in Diving into Examples of Theories.
I also have a space for you to ask any Questions About This Course you might have.

A Reading Quiz

W-01 Reading Quiz for Cooper and Granucci Lesser (2022) Chapter 01

And I want you to submit your contact info.

Academic Integrity: and Generative Artificial Intelligence

I want to talk a little about using generative AI and how you might think about.

First, I have an attachment that was developed by a faculty committee considering Heritage and the use of AI. That is in the handouts. It basically just says to ask and to recognize it is different between different places.

Show Document: Al Essentials for Students at Heritage University.

It describes the ethical considerations including

Originality: All submitted work must be your own. Using Al to assist is not the same as having Al do the work for you. Only use it within the bounds permitted by your instructor.
Acknowledge Al use: If you use generative Al, cite it as instructed. Ask if you’re unsure. (Citation formats like APA, MLA, and Chicago now include guidance for Al.)
Protect your data: Never share personal, sensitive, or confidential information with public Al tools.
Use protected platforms: When possible, use institutionally supported Al tools like Microsoft Copilot with Data Protection to safeguard your information.

In the use, I also encourage you to think about your development of critical thinking skills and meta analysis that you have to do as social workers, but that can’t really be relegated to a machine (maybe story of graphic design from Fedrico). We won’t get into the potential future threats around information and ecological concerns.

I want to talk about hallucinations. I have to screen shots from 2023/2024 with bad results.

AI saying that add glue to make cheese stick to pizza

or AI saying that Christof Wandratsch completing it in 14 h 51 min in 2020 cross the channel on foot.

To give context, he did In August 2005 he set the world record for the fastest ever swim of the English Channel in a time of 7 h 03 mins

[Fastest crossing of the English Channel swimming (male)

Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/63415-fastest-crossing-of-the-english-channel-swimming-male) provides ANDREAS WASCHBURGER in 2023 as the current.

I have another screenshot asking the same question today and it recognizes that as a failed prompt before (because other people have written about it)

What I want you to realize is that it doesn’t know anything. It is making logical guesses about how to describe things and sometimes it completely makes those things up. I think this will continue to improve but it can’t be trusted for 100 % accuracy.

So… here are my…

Hopes & Concerns: Can help us all level of and improve the work that we do. I already talked about my concerns.
Appropriate: Getting ideas, brainstorming, asking it to review work that you’ve done and get feedback
Inappropriate Uses: Asking it to write your forum or papers, over reliance