Using the feminist framework, six instructional modules were developed to teach empowerment practice to undergraduate social work students. The instructional modules, designed for 50 or 90 minute class sessions, used feminist strategies and materials on gender, race, oppression, and privilege to infuse content about women in poverty and women of color in six core social work courses. The modules built onto what was already being taught in each course and made no major changes to the undergraduate curriculum. A follow-up study examined whether feminist and nonfeminist faculty used the modules and if standardized modules were effective in infusing empowerment content. Survey findings from sixteen faculty and 481 students showed the modules were used by faculty regardless of their experience with feminism. Students reported improved understanding of empowerment and demonstrated the ability to define empowerment and name disempowered groups. Implications for social work education are discussed.
This study describes the effects of an inquiry-focused, contentintensive professional development program on Pre-kindergarten-9th grade teachers’ science and mathematics knowledge, use of classroom based inquiry, improvement in their science teaching self-efficacy and other motivation constructs. This two-and-a-half-year program was designed to meet the needs of teachers in a local urban school district. The professional development in the form of a graduate program intentionally sought to emphasize science and mathematics content knowledge and inquiry teaching. Twenty experimental teacher-participants were involved in the program with twelve additional teachers as a control group. Data collection instruments used for this study included content testing, student test-scores, self-efficacy belief surveys, and behavioral scales. The results of the study indicated greater growth for program participants in the areas of science and mathematics content knowledge. The participants also showed greater increases in science teaching self-efficacy as compared to the teachers in the control group.
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