Poster: Application of the Strengths Perspective for Building Students\u27 Confidence in Learning Research

This presentation will describe a scholarship of teaching and learning project that developed out of the 2016 Teacher Scholar Summer Institute. The Research Methods for Social Work Practice course was chosen to be revitalized as it was a course that students routinely struggled with and often hindered students\u27 ability to move forward in the major. After making substantive changes to the course syllabus, a pre-test and post-test study was designed to measure students\u27 perceptions about research methods for social work. Specifically the study was designed to measure the anxieties and sense of efficacy the students had coming into the course. During the course, the philosophical tenets of the Strengths Perspective (Saleebey, 2006) were employed by the instructor. The post test captured again the students\u27 anxieties and sense of efficacy related to the course. Insights and findings will be shared. Application of a strengths-based approach to teaching will be discussed