Teaching systemic concepts through reality television

Abstract

Teaching with the use of reality television has been used by the authors (Gambrel and Sude) in two COAMFTE-accredited Master's programmes in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT). One programme focuses on adult, part-time learners in a private university in a large city, whereas the other is a full-time programme in a small town as part of a middle-sized public university. Both programmes have primarily female students. The activity presented has been used in several different courses, all of which focus on learning systemic theories and models. These courses each had approximately fifteen students enrolled. The activity provides students with the opportunity to apply the concepts to an actual system in reality television shows.