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Social Work 3E03, along with Social Work 3F03, are new courses that replaced Social Work 2E03 and Social Work 3A03. Social Work 3E03 is essentially a theory course where the emphasis is on learning about the tenets of theories and the theory-to-practice relationship in social work settings. There is also a strong emphasis on development in considering theory and social work interventions. There is a lot of group work in this course as 72% of your mark is based on group work. While the format of the course initially seemed complicated, it got easier after a few weeks. This course is currently mandatory for all social work students.

Course Structure
At the beginning of the course, the instructor randomly divided the class into learning groups of 5 students. The course is set up in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) style where we are given a client situation and we research and apply appropriate theories and interventions. The course is divided into three cycles that are each three weeks long.

In the first two weeks of cycle one, your learning group choose a client, who is a youth or an adolescent, from a list provided by the instructor. Your learning group also adds details to the client and their situation and from that, your learning group chooses appropriate macro theories to understand the client, as well as practice theories/interventions that are informed by your practice theories. In the third week, you will present your client, their situation, the theories and interventions you have researched to your tutorial group. I think that for the presentations, it is important to make the links between the theories and to the client. Also, creative and interactive elements are good to have in your presentation.

For cycle two, you do the same thing with the same client, however, the client has progressed in their life span and experiences a different situation, which your learning group determines. Again, this is repeated for cycle three where the client has further progressed in their life span.

Mark Break Down
Group Presentations: As mentioned, group work makes up 72% of your mark where each cycle's presentation is worth 24% of your mark. This can be a pain if you do not like group work. Personally, I do not mind group work and I really enjoyed this aspect of the course. The professor, Michelle Bates, is also very open for discussion if you have any concerns to discuss. I recommend that, as the majority of your mark depends on group work, it is important to pay attention to group process. I thought it was not difficult to do well so long as the macro and micro theories and interventions you use are appropriate for the client and is well linked.

Reflection Papers: Additionally, there were also four reflections that were each worth 7%. These reflections were 3 to 4 pages long. The purpose of these reflections were vague but I gather that the point was to reflect on the debates you have with theories and their application. As someone with no formal practice experience, I thought the reflections could be challenging and very time consuming. You can do well but it took a considerable amount of time for me to do them.

Professor and TAs
Michelle Bates is the professor and is excellent. Michelle only formally lectured twice in the course however, you will also get to speak to Michelle during the cycles. (The tutorial groups rotate so that most learning groups get to have all the TAs and Michelle). Anyways, Michelle and the TAs are very helpful for the presentation.

Overall Thoughts of the Course
I really enjoyed this course and thought it was not hard to do well. I did not think it was stressful and I had an excellent group experience. I enjoyed the freedom in the course to pursue whatever theory/client-situation we liked. My group, for instance, used Black Feminism, Queer Theory and Geriatric Feminism as our macro theories for the cycles and so, the freedom really helped me stay engaged with this course. Also, Michelle pointed out that it is important to avoid thinking about service-users in normative way which also helped me be engaged as I find that many of the social work courses I have taken so far inadvertently promoted a normative way of thinking.