Abstract
This Banded Dissertation promotes the significance of classroom participation in the undergraduate social work classroom and is comprised of three scholarly products: a conceptual article, a qualitative content analysis research article, and a workshop presentation. Critical pedagogy and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) are concepts utilized across all three scholarly products to demonstrate the need for intentional classroom participation methods that represent the mission of social work education. The first product is a conceptual article that provides strategies for alignment between social work educators’ teaching philosophies and their classroom participation methods. The article makes the case for recognizing classroom participation as a distinct and crucial teaching tool for baccalaureate social work educators. The second product is a research study conducting a qualitative content analysis of 33 Introduction to Social Work undergraduate course syllabi. The study sought to better understand how educators conceptualize classroom participation and what they expect of their students. Findings were organized around the categories of expectations, attendance, and grading. The third product is a workshop that was scheduled for presentation at the Association of Baccalaureate Program Directors (BPD) 37th Annual Conference. The purpose of the workshop was to highlight the need for intentional class participation methods in the baccalaureate social work classroom and to draw attention to the complexity of creating and maintaining classrooms that rely upon active student engagement. The Banded Dissertation makes the case for why effective use of classroom participation is instrumental for effective teaching in social work.