Converting Master of Social Work curriculum into PBL: Pains and gains for students, staff and teaching quality

Abstract

The HKU Master of Social Work program established 25 years ago is the oldest, most established and internationally portable master of social work program in Hong Kong. To maintain the program’s strengths in training the most ready-for-service social workers, the program committee decided in 1999 to switch its first year core courses into the PBL mode. The decision was made after careful consideration of the promising match amongst the PBL mode, the challenging demands in training competent social workers, and the characteristics of adult learners committed to human services. The switch implied hard work for the program team in curriculum reform, staff training for case writing and conducting PBL tutorials, devising appropriate assessment schemes, and managing psychological hurdles in the students, teachers, and potential employers in facing something unfamiliar. From 1999 to 2001, the program team collected qualitative and quantitative data on this continuous change process from all parties concerned. This paper will outline the efforts and rationale of the reform in 1999 and its refinement in 2000. The implications of this venture on student performance, teaching quality and social work curriculum design will be discussed.