Portfolios for learning and assessment: laying the foundations for continuing professional development

Portfolios are widely used in a range of education programmes at different levels in a number of countries. They are also well established at all stages in social work education. However, in the literature there is surprisingly little critical analysis of the application of the portfolio in social work. In this paper the authors' objective is to contribute to professional knowledge about the use of portfolios in social work. The authors are all members of the Higher Education Funding Council Self-Assessment in Professional and Higher Education Project and are concerned to develop self-assessment in social work and enhance the development of life-long learning. They begin by examining the literature about portfolios from the field of education. Findings are then analysed from a small exploratory study of the use of portfolios in practice learning on a Diploma in Social Work course. Five different but related conceptual themes which emerge from the analysis are discussed: compiling the portfolio; issues of evidence; reflection in a context of assessment; the practice teacher and the learning dialogue; and the challenge of assessment. Suggestions are offered for effective portfolio practice.     

Promoting Deep Learning: A Teaching,Learning and Assessment Endeavour

The need for social workers to develop expertise in critical reflection is now a dominant theme in the literature. How this expertise is achieved, however, remains under‐explored in an environment increasingly focused on outcomes, evidence of performance and teachers' preoccupations with curriculum content and assessment. Students' understanding of critical reflection and how, if at all, their social work education assists in developing this capacity, continue to be under‐represented.

Applying a ‘deep‐learning’ framework, this article outlines an attempt to engage final year social work students in a teaching, learning and assessment exchange that promotes critical reflexivity. It presents the thinking behind the evolution of a unit focused on social work in public welfare and health settings. Using their final assessment exercise in which they are asked to review their learning, it then offers students' responses to that unit. In particular, the paper highlights the personalised practice visions offered by students as they seek to locate themselves, personally and professionally, before making the identity‐challenging transition from student to qualified practitioner.     

An Agenda for the Future: Student Portfolios in Social Work Education

Portfolios have been used in a variety of academic settings for outcomes measures and to present students' best work. This article introduces the idea of electronic portfolios to be used with social work majors both in the graduate and undergraduate curriculums. The literature around portfolios, an explanation of our process and the points to consider regarding pursuing an electronic portfolios process are addressed.     

Evaluating the outcomes of intensive critical thinking instruction for social work students

Social workers require critical thinking skills to analyse situations which present themselves in the course of professional work and in making decisions about the most appropriate forms of social work intervention. The 4-year Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of Newcastle, Australia, introduced an intensive instructional unit on critical thinking at the beginning of the final year of the course. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, the Ennis—Weir Essay Test and a qualitative student self-appraisal were administered to students in the fourth year of the degree prior to the intensive instructional unit on critical thinking and again after the unit had been completed. From the results it was concluded that explicit and concentrated instruction on critical thinking assisted social work students to improve their critical thinking abilities and to identify principles of critical thinking.     

Putting old heads on young shoulders: helping social work students uncover the neoliberal hegemony

This paper explores the suggestion that younger students and social workers are more accepting of neoliberal social work practices than their older counterparts, understanding social problems more readily as failings of individual behaviour rather than as produced by societal forces such as inequality, poverty, and punitive social policy. The suggestion is made that the acceptance of a hegemonic view of people in poverty and other difficulties, which is simple and reductionist, and therefore, easy to grasp, can only be challenged by sophisticated critical thinking. Assignment results from two modules within one social work programme which significantly correlate marks attained and student age are considered in the light of the suggestion that younger students are struggling with critical thinking, and therefore, with deconstructing the neoliberal hegemony.     

Speed Mentoring in Teaching and Learning: Young people with experience of the care system mentor social work students

The value of listening and talking to young people with experience of the care system has been recognised as a vital and positive contribution to social work students' learning. A model of co-production was used to develop a series of speed mentoring events whereby social work students placed in local authority children and family settings were mentored by young people with experience of the care system. This tentative review of this small-scale project shares the authors' critical reflections on the value and reliability of this model, for evaluating the outcomes of co-productive mentoring relationships between young people and social work students. The reversal of the power dynamic between student and service user contributed to the unsettling of assumptions about each other and empathy for each other's role. The student authors reflect on learning about the child's experience that has influenced their practice. The mentor authors welcomed the opportunity to participate in the development of ‘young people friendly’ social workers. Suggestions are made as to how this model could be developed to contribute to a more systematic approach to the role of service users in mentoring, advising and contributing to the supervision process of students and social workers.     

Beyond Words: Comics in the Social Work Classroom

ABSTRACT

Equipping future social workers to interrogate social justice, human rights, and cultural issues requires a revision of social work education. Culturally relevant teaching is increasingly important in today’s globalized world. In this article, we explore the role of comics as a form of social work pedagogy to tackle complex social issues. The article argues that comics offer specific benefits to educators seeking to develop critical thinking and self-reflexivity in their students. We present findings from focus group discussions with social work students to examine the relevance of comics in social work education. Ultimately, the use of comics as a teaching tool contributes to the effective preparation of future social workers through the mutual transformation it engenders in students and educators.     

Critical Thinking in Social Care and Social Work: Searching Student Assignments for the Evidence

The ability to think critically would appear to be a defining feature of competent social work practice. Yet the way practitioners develop critical thinking and how it is taught and assessed within educational establishments is unclear. This paper explores one key aspect of the learning process; the way critical thinking might be evidenced in the transition from Further Education to Higher Education. The assignments produced by students undertaking the HNC in Social Care and year one students at the initial stage of the BA Social Work programme in Scotland were examined. The findings suggest that students working in social care environments and year one students on the BA Social Work course were able to evidence some critical thinking; however, it was generally quite minimal and limited to certain categories. Whilst there are likely to be diverse opinions within Scotland as to how the new four‐year honours degree in social work is implemented in terms of teaching, assessment and learning, a valuable opportunity may be missed if critical thinking is not a core feature and meaningfully aligned to students' experiences at Further Education and Higher Education.     

Teaching Critical Reflection in Social Work Field Education

ABSTRACT

This article explores the process and outcomes of teaching critical reflection to social work students in an Australian university, based on our experience with teaching critical reflection. The application by students of a particular model of critical reflection to their learning experiences during field education placements is described and analyzed. Examples of student reflections are provided and discussed to illustrate how they have used the model of critical reflection and incorporated its critical dimension. The student reflections demonstrate that the model of critical reflection adopted assisted students to become more critical in their understandings and to some extent in their actions.     

Political Social Work

This article contributes to discourse on signature pedagogy by reconceptualizing how our pedagogies are understood and defined for social work education. We critique the view that field education is social work's signature pedagogy and consider what pedagogies are distinct about the teaching and learning of social work. Using Shulman's work on professional education, we offer a conceptualization that rests on the belief about the necessary outcome of our pedagogy—it must enable students to think and perform like social workers through the development of the professional self. We present a framework that focuses on three integrating features: thinking and performing like a social worker, development of the professional self, and characteristic forms of teaching and learning.     

Practice wisdom: the art and science of social work

Practice wisdom is the foundation for effective practice and encompasses both the art and science of social work. The divide between practice and theory has existed since the profession emerged and practice wisdom is the bridge to this gap. The epistemology and ontology of practice wisdom highlights its importance for research, education and practice for the next generation of social workers. The work of Howard Goldstein is critical in the examination of the artistry of practice wisdom, which can be taught and measured by supporting the development of critical thinking and reflection skills of students. Capturing the essence of practice wisdom lays the foundation for developing a pedagogy that promotes its development in social work students.     

Preparing MSW Students for Integrative Mind–Body-Spirit Practice

Knowledge of new developments in social work education supports clinical practitioners’ professional development and their supervision of students and early career social workers. Integrative mind–body-spirit (IMBS) practice is a holistic paradigm that is emerging in social work education and the profession. IMBS modalities have a growing evidence base and are congruent with the healing practices of many cultures, thereby supporting culturally competent practice. This article explores the development, implementation, and outcomes of an elective MSW course designed to critically examine the IMBS and biomedical paradigms and introduce students to IMBS practice. Two sections of this course were piloted (n = 35) and pre- and post-assessments administered. Findings suggest that experienced clinicians can support the professional development of novice practitioners by encouraging ongoing exploration and critical assessment of the IMBS and biomedical paradigms and incorporation of evidence-based mind–body-spirit practices in their clinical work and self-care.     

Recruiting,engaging, and educating social work leaders: an innovative curricular model

Graduate social work student interest in administration or management studies has been low in comparison to their interest in clinical practice. Recruiting graduate students to administration or management specializations in social work education remains a challenge for social work programs. Recognizing the need to attract and prepare MSW students for administration, various curriculum models have been proposed. This study presents a unique model that was designed specifically for social work students who wanted to become competent clinical practitioners, yet were also interested in macropractice. By marketing to, and recruiting, graduate students who have a passion for the dual (macro and micro) focus of social work, the administration specialization in this large, US-based urban graduate social work program has been able to attract over 120 additional students each year, comprising nearly 24% of the graduating class. This qualitative study examined students’ rationale for selecting this specialization, their experiences in the program and their suggestions for improvement. Implications for other graduate social work programs are highlighted.     

Integrating Critical Consciousness into Direct Social Work Practice: A Pedagogical View

An unnecessary and unfortunate divide has existed historically within social work both in the United States and also in the United Kingdom between social reform or anti-oppressive practice, and direct social work practice or social care. In this article, the limitations of such a dichotomy will be explored, and ways that social work educators may more effectively integrate critical reflection approaches into their pedagogical practices will be identified. Building upon Denzin's methodological elaboration of C. Wright Mills' concept of private troubles–public issues, this article will discuss the usefulness of applying methods from critical, interpretive qualitative research to help social workers achieve critical consciousness in social work education and practice. This article will also address ways to help social work students overcome impediments to achieving critical consciousness, including the anxiety attendant upon changing one's belief systems. Finally, this article will describe the development of a concentration-year MSW elective, Transformative Social Work Practice, which sought to assist social work students in becoming more critically reflexive in their clinical work.     

The Impact of Social Work Education: A Personal Construct Reconceptualization

Abstract

Despite educators' and practitioners' assumptions, research on the professional socialization of social work students has generally failed to document an impact of the educational process and has consequently hampered informed debate on the nature, outcome, and processes of social work education. In this paper the impact of social work education on the individual is reconceptualized in terms of Kelly's personal construct theory, which posits the individual in social work education as personally construing the social work systems of meaning. This conceptualization formed the basis of a cross-sectional study of students at the beginning, middle, and end of social work education. The comparison showed that graduating students used a repertoire of more abstract social work constructs. They also showed an understanding of social work and its role in the world consistent with that articulated by the department in which they completed their professional education. However, a disjuncture was noted between the graduates' understanding of social work and its role in the world (social change) and the constructs they used to understand situations encountered by social workers. Possible reasons for this disjuncture are suggested.     

Teaching Critical Reflection: A Tool for Transformative Learning in Social Work?

In an Australian Bachelor of Social Work degree, critical reflection is a process explicitly taught in a fourth year subject to students who have returned from their first field placement experience in agencies delivering social work programmes. The purpose of teaching critical reflection is to enable social work students to become autonomous and critical thinkers who can reflect on society, the role of social work and social work practices. The way critical reflection is taught in this fourth year social work unit relates closely to the aims of transformative learning. Transformative learning aims to assist students to become autonomous thinkers. Specifically, the critical reflection process taught in this subject aims to assist students to recognise their own and other people's frames of reference, to identify the dominant discourses circulating in making sense of their experience, to problematise their taken-for -granted ‘lived experience’, to reconceptualise identity categories, disrupt assumed causal relations and to reflect on how power relations are operating. Critical reflection often draws on many theoretical frameworks to enable the recognition of current modes of thinking and doing. In this paper, we will draw primarily on how post-structural theories, specifically Foucault's theorising, disrupt several taken-for-granted concepts in social work.     

Education and training for social work: A response to Tony Novak

Novak's proposal (1995) that student social workers should be taught on the basis of how social work should be practised rather than how it actually is being practised within the current market economy, is challenged as an unhelpful ‘head in the sand’ approach to current dilemmas in social work education. The revised Diploma in Social Work (CCETSW, 1995a) is defended on the grounds that it prepares social workers for the jobs they will have to do on qualifying; that it retains a user-centred anti-racist and anti-discriminatory value basis and that, in spite of serious political threats, it remains rooted in higher education and emphasises the importance of holistic assessment and critical reflection in practice.     

Teaching and Providing Recovery-oriented Care Through Problem-posing Dialogue

As the recovery paradigm proliferates throughout systems of mental health care, social workers are being required to provide recovery-oriented services. Yet there has been little discussion about what changes need to be made in social work education to produce recovery-oriented social workers. This article uses Paulo Freire's theory of pedagogy to help social work educators understand how they can develop problem-posing relationships with their students in order to teach students about the relationships that social workers ought to have with people in recovery.     

The Integration of Personal and Professional Selves: Developing Students' Critical Awareness in Social Work Practice

How social work students incorporate personal and professional selves in the contexts of field education represents a cornerstone of effective and sustainable practice. This paper presents a qualitative component of a study that tracked 15 third-year bachelor of social work students across their first field placement to document their use of self, critical reflections and experiential learning. The project examined students' assessed ‘use of self’ assignments to understand their capacity for and development of critical awareness across this placement. Students were most articulate in being able to identify stressful situations that arose from placement in terms of what they were thinking (mind) and feeling (emotion) and to a much lesser extent to what they were sensing (body). Over time, students demonstrated a growing critical awareness to better identify and respond to their self-reported tensions. The findings provide developmental insights into how students integrate personal and professional selves and potentially shift from reflective and reflexive practices to incorporating praxis in their work. Through considering the linkages between self and practice, this paper explores student experiences whilst on placement and the associated developmental tasks of critical awareness.     

Exploring Professional Stereotypes and Learning for Inter-professional Practice: An Example from UK Qualifying Level Social Work Education

This paper explores the concept of stereotyping from UK social work students' and educators' perspectives. It discusses findings from an exploration of inter-professional practice with two cohorts of final year social work students in a UK university. The authors adapted a questionnaire to initiate discussion about inter-professional working with BA and MA students participating in a specialist child and family social work module. This paper analyses students' responses to the questionnaire and explores wider issues relating to professional stereotyping and identity, discussing the usefulness of these concepts for social work education and collaborative practice. Results suggest that student social workers held both positive and negative assumptions about specific occupations/professions (such as medicine), and that these acted as a mirror or tool for reflecting back their own views of social work identity/ies. We argue that this pedagogic exercise in identifying stereotypical assumptions about ‘others’ may encourage the building of a positive sense of ‘own’ professional identity. We further suggest that students should be encouraged to construct a core social work identity that is dynamic and responsive to changing contexts.