M.S.W. Core Courses

The core courses offered for the Master of Social Work are listed below. Permanent electives offered in each sequence are listed on the individual sequence page. Current students will find the semester course/section offerings are found on BannerWeb.
The course numbers listed are effective beginning summer 2019. Former course number equivalencies can be found here.
Quarter Hours: 2
Coordinating Sequence: Practice
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: First Year Summer
Introduces students to the history of social group work and focuses on applying the values, skills, and knowledge of the social work profession to a variety of groups. Theoretical and practical principles of group work are introduced to enhance understanding and use of group as a complex system of roles and interrelationships. Students learn how to construct task and treatment groups and how to mobilize the resources of existing groups. Primary focus is given to those dynamics which are common to all groups, and students will begin to explore how issues of difference (gender, race, sexual orientation, age, culture, class, ability, religion) affect group processes.
Quarter Hours: 1
Coordinating Sequence: Field
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: First Year Winter
This 2-day intensive will prepare students to maximize field learning opportunities while removing the mystery and performance anxiety related to starting field.
The course will:
- Introduce key field experiences and concepts, such as professional ethics, dual roles, being observed & evaluated, managing conflict and role as learner
- Explore and practice methods that can enhance critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Provide skills to successfully navigate the complexities of working with colleagues, supervisors and agencies
- Takes place the first 2 days of Winter Term; 11-5pm EST virtual
Coordinating Sequence: Human Behavior
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: First Year Summer
Introduces students to the sociocultural concepts that define the context of human experience. While exploring the broad thematic areas of culture, social structures, inter-group relationships and identity, concepts of ethnicity, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, and disability will be explored so as to understand how these variables impact individual lives. Implications for practice will be explored. Special attention will be given to the uses and misuses of power in constructing social identities and meanings as well as personal and group experiences, and to the ways that social identity and position affect access to services and resources.
Coordinating Sequence: Human Behavior
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: First Year Summer
This foundation course will examine the bio-psycho-social development of children and adolescents as a basis for understanding healthy functioning and the ways that environments and circumstances shape us at physical, cognitive, emotional and neurological levels. Special attention will be paid to the impacts of oppression on development with focuses on the impacts of racism and poverty. Developmentally appropriate clinical interventions for children will also be introduced. Through Moodle video lectures, in-class lectures, readings and case examples, students will develop the ability to identify appropriate development across ages and contexts and to consider developmental issues in clinical practice. Students will be evaluated through Moodle quizzes, in-class case assessments and a final group case assessment report.
Coordinating Sequence: Practice
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: First Year Field
Designed to help students successfully enter into and engage in the learning of the first year field internship. The seminar will address issues related to the Essential Attributes and Abilities and is designed to support students in achieving the defined learning objectives for first year field and to deepen their understanding and integration of content from the summer course work. Students are expected to use the seminar as a forum to discuss their own clinical work and to actively engage in the integration of theory and practice as relevant to their own internship setting. The course meets for 10 sessions September-April for 2 hours/month.
Coordinating Sequence: Policy
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: Second Year Summer
Introduces students to the macro-component for community-based practice. It will introduce students to selected concepts from organizational theory that help them understand and bring about change in human service organizations. It will also introduce students to the processes of community development, organizing, planning, empowerment, and change -- to bring about change at the community level. It will provide conceptual frameworks that support ways that clinical social workers can change organizations and communities. Finally, it will prepare students for and provide knowledge, skills and tools to engage in practice aimed at promoting social and economic justice.
Coordinating Sequence: Practice
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: Second Year Field
Designed to support second year students’ academic learning process during their field internships. The goal is to foster students’ abilities to successfully engage with and integrate multiple conceptual frameworks into direct clinical practice. The seminar will revisit summer course content to provide further continuity and integration during the second year field internship. Students will present their own clinical work and critically examine the treatment process including: systemic and structural dynamics in which the therapeutic relationship unfolds, internal transferential and countertransferential dynamics, and meaning making processes that inform treatment formulations, interventions, and evaluation. The course meets for 10 sessions September-April for 2 hours/month.
Coordinating Sequence: Policy
Fulfills: Core Requirement
Eligibility: Second Year Field
Students identify a coalition, network or community-based organization engaging in efforts to promote social and racial justice within their community. Students are required to join the work of the coalition or organization and engage in a total of 75 hours to strengthen knowledge and skills in organizational and community level social work practice. The Community Based Anti-Racism Experience involves students in social work activity that goes beyond direct clinical work with individuals, families and small groups to promote anti-racism in organizations, neighborhoods and our larger social systems.