Teaching a Canadian Experiential Course in Religion and Spirituality for Undergraduates in Addiction Counseling and Health Sciences: A Social Constructivist Framework

Religion and spirituality (RS) are integral to counseling and health but their incorporation into the curricula of these professions is still lacking. Limited literature is available on how to effectively teach such courses. This article presents a promising experiential, interactive model for an RS course designed for undergraduate students pursuing careers in addictions counseling, therapeutic recreation, and public health. An online course conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic adopted a social constructivist framework that encompassed four key components in its design and delivery: assessing prior knowledge, creating cognitive dissonance, applying new knowledge with feedback, reflecting on learning. Students' feedback in the course indicated their broadened understanding of the plurality of RS orientations and their acquisition of foundational skills with an increased confidence in bringing RS conversations into their practice. This article provides a conceptual and practical framework for educators to develop an RS course for a diverse representation of students and encourages further evaluation of the proposed model to assess its impact on learning outcomes.

Automated summary

This article presents a promising experiential, interactive model for teaching a religion and spirituality (RS) course to undergraduate students pursuing careers in addictions counseling, therapeutic recreation, and public health. The online course, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilized a social constructivist framework and incorporated four key components: assessing prior knowledge, creating cognitive dissonance, applying new knowledge with feedback, and reflecting on learning. Student feedback indicated an increased understanding of the plurality of RS orientations and the acquisition of foundational skills, leading to greater confidence in incorporating RS conversations into their practice. The article offers a conceptual and practical framework for educators and encourages further evaluation of the proposed model's impact on learning outcomes.