Mark My Words! Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Academic Assessment

This paper discusses the involvement of service users in academic assessment as part of a second year module for social work undergraduate students at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. The three main tasks undertaken in partnership are detailed: designing an assessment form, assessment of student group presentations and assessment of a written reflective essay. The paper starts by identifying key questions raised by the assessor team before providing a critical commentary on the process, and identifying challenges and learning points. The experience emphasises the need for a more critical and searching approach towards service user involvement in social work education in academic assessment. Moreover, the team's experience suggests that such work is best achieved in the context of collaborative working relationships based on trust, with opportunities for team reflection and supported by training in academic assessment.     

Curtain Down on Act One: Practice Learning in the First Year of the New Social Work Award

The curtain has come down on the first year of the new social work degree in England. This paper presents the findings of a survey of social work educators in academic and practice settings to find out how practice learning in this year has been experienced and the shape of plans for the rest of the new degree. The paper reflects on the enormous diversity of arrangements for practice learning, in terms of patterns of delivery, assessment, funding, and service user and carer involvement. One pattern that is emerging strongly is a more experimental flavour to this first year, with new practice learning sites being developed, and the use of group arrangements to supervise and support students. However, there is also the potential for inconsistency in standards, especially in the ways that students are judged as ‘fit for practice learning’. There are concerns that the new partnerships are increasingly driven by universities and colleges, with some agency partners unclear about what is happening and why. There are also indications that the postgraduate programmes will have less room for experimentation than the three‐year undergraduate courses and this may become a source of divergence between the two routes.     

Involving Service Users in the Teaching and Learning of Social Work Students: Reflections on Experience

This article describes and reflects on a project to develop service user involvement in the teaching and learning of students on one social work degree course. It includes the perspectives of a service user who took a lead role in the project and a part‐time academic member of staff given a specific contract to develop the work. The aspects of the project discussed are: getting started; bringing people together; student learning from individual voices; and student learning from collective experiences. Achievements and obstacles are discussed and key points of learning noted.     

Service User Involvement in Social Work Education: A Case Example

The financial resources provided by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) which supports the education and registration of social workers, has allowed for an increase in user involvement in social work programmes in England and Wales. This article discusses the sources of knowledge appropriate for social workers and social care workers including the significance of the service user knowledge base for social work theory and practice. A project is described which involved students in a consultation process with service users whose role it was to contribute to the students' learning in a particular area, specifically understanding their experience of social workers and the issues of discrimination which they faced and the processes which were helpful in resisting oppression.     

Building Capacity for Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Education

Requirements set out for the social work degree and post‐qualifying framework specify the involvement of service users and carers on a number of levels. Research indicates that service user and carer involvement can benefit students, professionals and service users and carers themselves. To keep up with demands placed on service users and carers by higher education institutions and other social work bodies, the issue of capacity needs to be addressed. This paper describes a programme (Getting Involved) designed by Skills for Care to build capacity to participate among service users and carers new to social work education. It describes the experience of piloting the programme in Dorset by a team at Bournemouth University consisting of service users and carers and staff from the Centre for Post‐Qualifying Social Work. Getting Involved is a welcome development and the outcomes of the pilot have been extremely positive for all involved. The process of undertaking and evaluating the pilot raised issues concerning setting up programmes, project management, service users and carers as co‐researchers and sustainability. These are discussed in terms of our experience and how they link with the literature. Lessons learnt and implications for similar work in the future are highlighted.     

The involvement of service users in the assessment of Diploma in Social Work students on practice placements

The government, local authorities and academic institutions in the United Kingdom all positively support the involvement of service users in social work practice and education. Based upon research undertaken for a Master's dissertation, this article argues for such an inclusive approach. The author works for the Training and Development Services of an English Social and Caring Services department, which delivers a Diploma in Social Work course in collaboration with the local university college. This course began to incorporate service users' views in the assessment of students on practice placements in the mid-1990s. This was a helpful development, although areas of ambiguity and difficulty became apparent, as did a lack of clarity and consistency in the implementation of the process. A qualitative survey of the views of practice teachers was conducted by means of semi-structured interviews, which focussed on the main principles, issues and practical implications of service user involvement in the assessment of DipSW students. The article offers a summary of the findings of the survey, and a critical discussion of the main issues and difficulties that emerged. Some recommendations are made for the course that the author is associated with, although they would probably apply to most DipSW courses in the United Kingdom. The author is male, white and British.     

Making It Our Own Ball Game: Learning and Assessment in Social Work Education

This paper discusses service‐user involvement in social work education. Drawing on practical examples, it engages with both the processes of developing service‐user defined assessment tools and the outcomes of applying such tools in practice. The paper uses practical experiences of the involvement of Advocacy In Action with the social work course at the University of Nottingham to illustrate the approach that has been developed, and draws on the testimonies of both academic and student partners in the learning process to support the validity of the assessment processes that have been devised.     

The Debate as a Pedagogic Tool in Social Policy for Social Work Students

Social work education under the Diploma in Social Work has been shaped by a competency led training model. The danger in this approach is that the critical thinking required of the reflective practitioner becomes lost. This paper argues that the teaching of social policy requires a complex interplay of knowledge, skills and values if students are to be equipped to participate effectively in the policy process. The authors, as teachers of social policy to social work students, have developed the use of the debate as a tool for learning and assessment. This approach is evaluated using structured student feedback and is discussed in the context of experiential and reflective learning and the application of social policy as ‘policy practice’. Over three cohorts, students reported increased knowledge and understanding and improved confidence in argumentation skills. Observation showed them utilising a range of policy practice skills. Recent evidence from the USA and Australia begins to confirm the value of this learning tool.     

The Caring Experience: Learning about Community Care through Spending 24 Hours with People Who Use Services and Family Carers

This paper describes a teaching and learning initiative developed in a UK social work programme that has involved carers, service users, academic social work staff and practitioners. Post‐graduate student social workers spend 24 hours in agreed periods with family carers or people who use social work services. The paper explains the origins of this initiative, rooted in a model of service user and carer involvement established over a number of years within the social work programme at the University of Dundee, Scotland. The development of this teaching and learning method is outlined and an account is given by a family carer describing their experience of being involved in the programme. Findings from the evaluation of this first year of operation are reported.     

Involving Services Users in Social Work Training on the Reality of Family Poverty: A Case Study of a Collaborative Project

In the last five years there has been an increased drive to include the perspectives and contributions of service users in social work education in the United Kingdom. In this paper we discuss the experience of one project that attempted to bring together service users, academics and practitioners to jointly develop and deliver a module that sought to examine the perspectives of families living in poverty who were in receipt of children and families social work services. Through doing this it was hoped that it would be possible to raise practitioners’ awareness of how poverty impacts on parenting and how they could develop an approach that was non‐punitive and genuinely supportive. The paper starts by exploring the context of service user involvement in social work education and then describes the development and process of this collaborative project. The paper concludes with recommendations for both projects seeking to engage service users in empowering and meaningful ways, as well as social work practice within an anti‐oppressive framework.     

Learning to Be a Social Worker in a Non-traditional Placement: Critical Reflections on Social Work,Professional Identity and Social Work Education in England

Drawing upon findings from a national evaluation of student social workers' experiences of ‘non-traditional’ placements with a national charity, this article considers what such placements can contribute to the development of an individual and collective sense of professional identity for social work. This is explored against the background of current developments in social work education in England, including changes to the requirements for practice placements and the introduction of ‘fast-track’ routes to qualification, preparing students for social work in statutory children's services. The article suggests that with the establishment of The College of Social Work and the development of the Professional Capabilities Framework, relevant to all social workers throughout their careers, the profession has an opportunity to promote a concept of social work in England beyond that required by statutory sector employers; and that practice learning in non-statutory and non-traditional settings has an important role to play in this.     

Dialogue and Challenge: Involving Service Users and Carers in Small Group Learning with Social Work and Nursing Students

This paper examines the rationale for service user and carer involvement in professional education and reflects on an initiative in which social work and nursing students undertook a sequence of joint learning in relation to mental health theory and practice. Central to this initiative was the promotion of opportunities for dialogue, both between students from different professional disciplines and between students, service users and carers. To enable this, much of the learning took place in small groups facilitated by either a service user or a carer.

Evaluation of this initiative indicated that, for the majority of social work and nursing students, learning from this shared experience had a major impact on their professional development. However, a small but significant minority found it hard to enter into a dialogue with others on a basis of equality and a sharing of their human as well as their professional experience. Some students indicated that they would have preferred a focus on acquiring more specialist professional knowledge and skills. This raises important issues in relation to the changing expectations of professionalism and professional education—and what really makes someone ‘fit for practice’.     

Preparation for Contact: An Aid to Effective Social Work Intervention

This article proposes that a pre‐contact phase of work which helps prepare the worker/social work student for face‐to‐face intervention is a prerequisite for effective practice. It builds on the original work by Douglas and McColgan in which preparation for contact was placed in the context of the Diploma in Social Work Competence requirements. In this revised article links are made to the new degree in social work while retaining the framework which provides for examination of essential knowledge, skills and values which underpin effective preparation for a social work encounter. The article discusses the Preparation for Contact exercise and explores its value as a learning tool for social work students, its usefulness as an assessment tool for university tutors and agency practice teachers in relation to testing the student's ‘readiness’ for contact and its place in providing practice learning evidence in relation to requirements of the degree in social work.     

Detecting and Deterring Plagiarism in Social Work Students: Implications for Learning for Practice

This paper draws on literature and on a recent workshop run for social work educators to outline important considerations in detecting and deterring plagiarism. Plagiarism, greatly facilitated by the use of the Internet, is increasing among students in higher education and there is evidence to suggest that students on social work courses are no less likely to plagiarise than other students. This paper addresses the importance of detecting plagiarism in students who will go on to work in professional practice but, importantly, highlights the importance of deterring plagiarism in order to maximise students' learning, thus enabling their fitness for practice. Conclusions are drawn for learning, teaching and assessment strategies.     

Social Work Students' Changing Perceptions of Social Problems After a Year of Community Intervention

This paper aims to throw light on the emotional and cognitive processes of students within social change-oriented field work as they develop over a year, as described through a projective and phenomenological art medium drawn and discussed at the beginning and at the end of the year. The literature on social work points to a discrepancy between the cognitive structural explanations of social problems that are taught to social work students, and their tendency to prefer focusing on individual rather than on societal levels of intervention. The aim of this examination of the students' processes over the year is to increase our understanding of the students' experience and understanding of their social change mission, so as to better prepare them for the challenges it entails, and to see where they get ‘lost’. Findings from this paper point to the gradual internalization of social change as a complex process, combined with the reframing of this complexity into tangible results.     

A Pedagogical Approach to Engaging Social Work Students in Research

Attitudes of US-based students in graduate-level social work master's in social work (MSW) toward required research courses often appear ambivalent, but developing an effective pedagogical approach to research could have lasting implications on students, educators, and the field. This article uses Bandura's social learning theory (SLT) to provide a framework for successfully engaging MSW students in the content of an introductory research class. This article outlines the thinking behind and the strategies used to engage students in the course content.     

The Use of Social Theory in Reflecting on Anti-Oppressive Practice with Final Year BSc Social Work Students

This article explores the relevance of social theory for social work teaching and learning about anti-oppressive practice. Use of theory in social work practice is discussed. It is argued that social theory is a toolbox from which social workers can draw eclectically in order to enhance their ability to practise anti-oppressively. A course/module which focuses on theory to understand and support anti-oppressive practice is described. The main aspects of social theory addressed in this module are outlined. These areas are firstly, human rights; secondly, traditional, modern and postmodern discourses or ‘ways of knowing’; thirdly, essentialism vis-à-vis the social construction of identity; and fourthly, an analysis of power in personal/professional relationships. The use of case studies or scenarios is discussed in relation to facilitating students' application of theory to practice. Extracts from a student essay demonstrate how one student applied social theory to a comparison of two case studies leading to strategies to empower the individuals in each scenario. The value of using social theory to reflect on and enhance anti-oppressive practice is discussed.     

Learning Style Preferences of Undergraduate Social Work Students

It has been identified that undergraduate social work students have distinctive learning needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning style preferences of a group of undergraduate social work students enrolled at a large Australian university. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory, Index of Learning Styles and Success Types Learning Style Type Indicator was distributed to 606 students enrolled in an undergraduate social work degree at one metropolitan Australian university. A total of 116 questionnaires were returned, providing a response rate of 19.14%. The results indicated that converging and assimilating, intuitive and sensing, thinking, judging and perceiving learning styles were favoured by this group of social work students. It is recommended that educators understand and take into consideration the learning style preferences of undergraduate social work students when developing curricula and evaluating teaching approaches, especially when planning and implementing education initiatives. This will help create effective learning environments, appropriate learning opportunities and a contemporary curriculum for social work students.     

Integrating the Natural Environment in Social Work Education: Sustainability and Scenario-based Learning

This article presents an approach to curriculum design that incorporates natural environmental content into social work education using sustainability principles. The curriculum development project outlined here used scenario-based learning (SBL) to integrate sustainability themes into contemporary social work practice challenges. SBL offers a flexible pedagogical strategy to integrate environmental content and explore social complexity. Importantly, it presents eco-social concerns as a central consideration of all contemporary social work practice.     

Backing Australia's Future: Teaching and Learning in Social Work

Abstract

It is universally expected that universities will strive for quality in teaching and learning. Over the past 25 years, massive changes to higher education have impacted on these institutions. We now have a mass higher education system, a knowledge-based economy, increased technology, and the internationalization of education accompanied by increased student enrolments and political expectations of enhanced graduate outcome measures. These changes pose challenges to developing, updating, and improving the quality of teaching and learning. This new policy environment confronts social work educators as they determine how best to deliver quality professional education. The present paper discusses the concepts underpinning the Australian government's paper Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future as a background to exploring the tensions arising in current professional expectations and criteria for social work programs as they make the transition from old to new paradigms in classroom teaching and field education.