Current practice needs and demands influenced the Columbia University School of Social Work to integrate its casework and group work areas and to develop a new social work practice sequence. Integration of the two faculty groups with their different socializations into the profession created painful intrasystemic tensions. The new sequence developed, "Social Work Practice with Families, Individuals and Groups," uses an ecosystems perspective as its conceptual framework. Its central premise, that person and environment are complementary components of a system continually shaping each other, directs social work practice to the transactions between them with simultaneous attention to both. Problems are defined in terms of difficulties in coping with life tasks and role transitions. Intervention includes a broad range of helping and change-producing activities and skills. The perspective makes new demands upon Columbia's educational partners, the field work agencies, for increased learning experiences for stu...