From “Formalization” to “Effectiveness”: Exploration on Breaking Through the Dilemma of Social Work Experimental Teaching

Abstract

Social work experimental teaching is a key link in cultivating students’ professional values, practical skills, and clinical thinking, and is the core path to achieving both professionalism and practicality in social work. However, there is a widespread tendency towards “formalization” in social work experimental teaching in Chinese universities. This paper first reviews the current research status of social work experimental teaching at home and abroad. It then sorts out the practical difficulties it faces, which mainly include: huge differences in experimental scene construction standards; disconnection between the experimental teaching system and management, and low operational efficiency; significant tension between the forward-looking teaching concept and the lagging supporting technology; unclear roles of laboratory administrators and lack of professional support. These structural difficulties have jointly led to the separation of experimental teaching in terms of “form” and “spirit”. To break through the difficulties and promote the transformation of experimental teaching from “formalization” to “effectiveness”, this paper proposes the following exploration paths: first, establish an experimental teaching scene and dynamic management mechanism with “efficiency as the core”; second, clarify the experimental teaching goals guided by professional core competencies and reshape the teaching evaluation system; third, reform the experimental teaching methods and give full play to students’ subjectivity; fourth, strengthen the construction of experimental teaching resources and innovate the teaching resource library.