Welcome to the California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) School of Social Work Practicum Education Program. Practicum Education is integral to achieving the goals of the Bachelor’s and Master’s Social Work Degree Programs. All the School’s Practicum Education components meet the Accreditation Standards of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
The Practicum Education Program includes practicum placement, seminar, and professional events that are designed to create a learning experience that allows students to apply theory and demonstrate skills learned in the classroom.
Students demonstrate their ability to integrate and apply social work knowledge, values, and skills to practice situations in a purposeful, intentional, and professional manner.
There are a wide range of practicum agencies that CSUSB utilizes to place students. Each year students are placed in over 80 different agencies as far north as Barstow, as far east as Indio, as far south as San Diego, and as far west as Los Angeles, while continuing to provide services to our local partners in the Inland Empire. The Pathway Distance Education Program also offers placements in Northern California and at times outside of the state. Sites vary in social work practice areas, which include mental health, medical social work, child welfare, school-based counseling, adult protective services, gerontology, forensic social work, and criminal justice.
Purpose of Practicum Education
Practicum education is considered the signature pedagogy for social work. Signature pedagogies are elements of instruction and socialization that teach future practitioners the fundamental dimensions of professional work in their discipline: to think, to perform, and to act intentionally, ethically, and with integrity.
The practicum setting is where students apply human rights principles from global and national social work ethical codes to advance social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. It fosters a learning environment where anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion are valued. Practicum education is designed to integrate the theoretical and conceptual contributions of the explicit curriculum in the practicum setting.
It is a basic precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum—classroom and practicum—are of equal importance, and each contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice.
Practicum education is systematically designed, supervised, coordinated, and evaluated based on criteria and measures of student acquisition and demonstration of the nine social work competencies. Responding to the changing nature of the practice world and student demographics and characteristics, practicum education programs articulate how they maintain or enhance students’ access to high-quality social work field practicum experiences. Practicum education programs develop practicum models to prepare students for contemporary and interprofessional social work practice, including the use of various forms of technology.