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Professional Development Program
Autumn 2009 Schedule

Winter/Spring 2010 PDP Schedule available January 4, 2010

The Core Curriculum

The core curriculum is central to the educational program at the master's level. It brings together all students, whatever their career interests, for a solid introduction to the fundamentals of social policy formulation and program implementation, social research, and direct practice. The core curriculum places particular emphasis on understanding and working with culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged populations. After completing core studies in the first year, students who choose clinical practice begin their concentration with an established awareness of the broader contexts of individual distress and helping responses, while social administration students enter their concentration with a corresponding understanding of social work intervention at the direct practice level.

Required courses in the first two quarters of the first year provide students with a common foundation of knowledge concerning social welfare issues, human development, direct practice intervention strategies, and social research. This foundation provides the background for concentration in clinical practice or social administration. Fieldwork placements in the first year are continuous for three quarters. They provide direct practice experience with distressed people and the institutions established to help them.

Core curriculum courses are distributed in the following manner for students in the day program:

Autumn	Winter	Spring
SSA 30000	SSA 30000	Concentration or Elective
SSA 30100	SSA 30100	Concentration or Elective
SSA 32700	SSA 30200	Concentration or Elective
Field Work	Field Work	Field Work

Core curriculum courses for the Extended Evening Program (EEP) are offered during the first and second years of study.

Social Intervention: Programs and Policies (SSA 30000). This two quarter course introduces students to the issues and problems associated with social welfare interventions at the community, agency, and policy levels. Students are expected to learn and exercise skills in analyzing the components of current policies, designing programmatic alternatives, anticipating substantive, operational, and political advantages and disadvantages, weighing benefits against financial costs, and making sound choices among imperfect alternatives. While focusing on public policies, the course will include consideration of the impact of policies and programs on individuals and families. The course will give students a thorough grounding in several critical areas of social work practice, including poverty and at least two social service areas such as mental health and child welfare.

Social Intervention: Direct Practice (SSA 30100). This two quarter course emphasizes the design and practice of social work interventions at the individual, family, and group levels. Students are introduced to the values, theories, concepts, skills, and empirical evidence that form the base for direct social work practice. Complementing SSA 30000, material is presented to examine needs, resources, and potential for change at the individual, family, and group levels, as well as to provide students with an understanding and appreciation of various options for intervention. Students will develop skills in identifying and defining problems, implementing and refining intervention strategies, evaluating the impact of clinical interventions, and weighing the ethical considerations of various choices. Particular attention is given to developing intervention approaches for working with underserved groups.

Social Intervention: Research and Evaluation (SSA 30200). This course focuses on the generation, analysis, and use of data and information relevant to decision making at the case, program, and policy levels. Students learn and develop skill in the collection, analysis and use of data related to fundamental aspects of social work practice: problem assessment and definition; intervention formulation, implementation, and refinement; and evaluation. The course covers specification and measurement of various practice and social science concepts, sampling methods, data collection strategies, and statistical and graphical approaches to data analysis. Students with strong research background and skills may take a written exam and be eligible for a clinical research course (44501) or a data analysis course (48500) in their first year.

Human Behavior and the Social Environment (SSA 32700). This core course teaches biological and social science concepts concerning human development that are fundamental to social work practice: social and ecological systems; life course development; culture, ethnicity, and gender; stress, coping, and adaptation; and social issues related to development over the life course. Students with extensive background in the socio-cultural, socio-economic, psychological, and congnitive contexts of human growth and behavior, may waive into an advanced course.

Human Diversity Requirement

In keeping with the School's mission and the commitment to train students for practice in a heterogeneous society, curriculum content on human diversity is integrated into nearly every course. In addition, students must take one or more courses from a list of approved first and second year offerings. The requirement in human diversity is intended to provide students with an analytical framework to understand human behavior and political processes in the environment of a diverse society to satisfy the following five goals:

To promote respect for ethnic and cultural diversity as an integral part of social work's commitment to preserve human dignity.
To foster knowledge and understanding of individuals, families, and communities in their socio-cultural and socio-economic contexts.
To analyze the ethnic and political issues related to the patterns, dynamics, and consequences of discrimination and oppression.
To help students develop skills to promote individual and social change toward social and economic justice.
To provide students a theoretical framework for integrating an approach toward diversity within their own particular area of expertise (e.g., clinical, community, organization, management, etc.).

Each year students will be provided a list of courses that meet the diversity requirement. Students who would like to substitute a course must obtain a copy of the syllabus for that course and submit a written memo to the Dean of Students explaining why that course will meet the goals provided by the diversity requirement. Because the diversity requirement is intended to give students an analytical framework with which to integrate questions of diversity within their training at SSA, no waivers of this course are considered. Approved courses in human diversity for the 2009-2010 academic year are listed below.

42100 Aging and Mental Health
42800 Clinical Intervention with Socially Vulnerable
Clients
43300 The Exceptional Child
43612 Immigrant Families and Adolescents
43900 Disability: Medical, Ethical and Psychosocial
Issues
44301 Psychodynamic Perspectives on Spirituality
44401 Sexuality across the Life Cycle
44800 Urban Adolescents in Their Families,
Communities, and Schools: Issues for
Research and Policy
45200 African American Families: Theories and
Research on the Role of Fathers
46500 The Youth Gang Problem: Policy,
Programs, and Research
47222 Promoting the Social and Academic
Development of Children in Urban
Environments
47801 Human Rights Perspective for Social Work
Direct Practice
60200 Spirituality and Social Work Practice
61200 Introduction to Aging: 21st Century
Perspectives
61400 The Social Meaning of Race
62500 Social Work with LGBT Clients

For full course descriptions, CLICK HERE.