FSW 485/585: Social Work in a Diverse World
For his ACT project, Dr. Joseph focused on a book critique and presentation assignment in his FSW 485/585 course. The class had 16 students, including 12 undergraduates and four graduate students. The book critique project was designed to engage students in reflective and analytic thinking as they evaluated the quality of the argument.

Students prepared a 3 to 5 page scholarly report in which they critically analyzed and discussed the major issues the author described. Students were asked to consider the ideological leanings of the author, the theoretical underpinnings of the book, and the accuracy of the information. Students were also asked to reflect on the effectiveness of the book and the impact the book had on the their thinking about the subject matter.

The one thing that stood out in virtually all of the reports (and subsequent presentations) was that if the author discussed any topic in unconventional ways, the students attributed that perspective to bias. Some students made statements about how the authors seemed to be "ideologues," therefore questioning the validity of their arguments. The power of conventional interpretations of various historical and social phenomena was quite strong. The second and third parts of the rubric required the students to speak to how the author(s) address the crucial concerns of particular social or racial groups and to comment on the author's perspectives. Again, Dr. Joseph found that students were largely influenced by how close (or far) students perceived the author(s) to be from the conventional wisdom or conventional interpretations.

Dr. Joseph reported that the rubric was helpful in identifying the issues he needed to address in class to help students to adopt a more critical view. Grading was also made easier because objectives were clearly articulated and Dr. Joseph relied less on subjectivity. Dr. Joseph plans on using the rubric again in the future.

Rubric