Gerontological Social Work Competency-Based Education and Evaluation
By Harriet L. Cohen

Several days ago I had a disgruntled student in my office protesting the grade she had received on an assignment regarding aging. She desperately explained, “But I worked all weekend on this assignment, didn’t go out with my friends, and even stayed up late to finish on time. Doesn’t that make a difference in my grade?” To which I responded, “It is not what you put in, but what comes out” that will help you develop confidence as a social work practitioner.

After the conversation with that student, I found myself reflecting on the organizational and curricular changes that have occurred in gerontological social work education since I made the transition from social work practitioner to educator in 2001. Because of my many years of practice with older adults, I was able to make the most of the opportunities offered through the Hartford Geriatric Enrichment Social Work Program (GeroRich), which introduced me to the concepts of “competency-based education and evaluation” and a “competency-based approach to curriculum development.” We learned that gerontological social work competencies should be clearly defined by stakeholders and embedded within a larger institutional strategic planning process. There should be multiple strategies to assess outcomes (e.g. extent to which the competencies are attained), with performance expectations clearly identified by faculty. Competencies are important in communicating with students what is expected of them and how their performance will be measured. Also, the assessment of students’ progress in meeting competencies can result in instructors’ strategies to improve student learning.

With the dramatic increase in the 65+ population and its increasing racial and ethnic diversity, gerontological social work competencies are critical in communicating with other social workers and health care providers, employers, families and the larger community about what students know and are able to do. The social work profession holds the potential to change and even transform the current fragmented and under-funded health, social service and long-term care aging network to be a culturally-competent, community-oriented, elder-friendly network of programs and services that involves older adults, not just as recipients of service, but as participants in the creation and evaluation of services (Greene & Cohen, 2005; Greene, Cohen, Galambos & Kropf, in press). This challenge requires a well articulated set of competences that identify the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and critical and reflective thinking that will prepare social work students as practitioners, researchers, advocates and policy makers with and for older adults.

Harriet L. Cohen, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Texas Christian University. She has been actively involved in Hartford-funded programs as a former GeroRich Project Director, CDI Mentor, member of the Gero-Ed Center’s National Advisory Board and Hartford Faculty Scholar.

References

Greene, R.R., Cohen, H.L., Galumbos, C., and Kropf, N.P. (In press). Foundation of social work practice in the field of aging: A competency based approach. Washington, DC: NASW Press.

Visit our Web site for more information on the CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s Competencies.