Participatory training of social work students: a mapping experience

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of a participatory and situated teaching/research experience, conducted during the first year of the degree course in Social Work at the University of Messina. This experience was based on the use of a participatory methodology—field research—different from traditional methodologies, and was analyzed in terms of performance and evaluation by the participating students. The reconstruction of the redefinition process of the first year internship activity, which involved the University of Messina students enrolled in the first year (cohort 2023/2024), was compared with a traditional, i.e. purely theoretical, first-year internship model carried out in the classroom (cohort 2022/2023). A counterfactual research was conducted which, through the use of a quantitative and anonymous questionnaire (to the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 cohorts of students), allowed us to assess the variation in the objective results observable in the immediate term: achievement of objectives; days of absence; interest aroused; attainment of the Principles and Fundamentals of Social Work examinations; choice of placement location. What emerged from the research, respect to the observed indicators, is that the first-year (2023/2024 cohort) internship activity, in a participatory and situated form, produced a variation in the expected direction.