The Process of Field Instruction

This article reports on the results of two surveys that asked BSW and MSW students to evaluate the supervision provided by their field instructors at two points during their practicum. Students responded to a variety of questions pertaining to the supervisory assignments and activities of their field instructor. The author discusses the relationship between supervisory skills and students’ perceptions of enhanced learning. Early in the practicum, activities reported as most helpful to students were those that introduced them to the agency and clarified expectations of their performance. At the end of their experience, students perceived as most helpful those activities which helped them to be self-critical and to link classroom and field learning.     

Improving Field Instruction: An Evaluation of a Seminar for New Field Instructors

Abstract

The field work component of social work education plays an important role in fusing the knowledge, skills, and values of the profession. Moreover, field instructors must be competent to ensure the success of the educational process. Thus, the training of new field instructors is critical to this success. This article reports the findings of a study evaluating the impact of a training seminar for new field instructors on student perceptions of the field experience. A 10-session seminar in field instruction was offered to new direct practice field instructors as a requirement for continued supervision of students. Students' responses to a questionnaire about their field instruction indicated that seminar attendance was related to the degree of emphasis on teaching students from process recordings and also on discussion of student learning needs. Students with trained field instructors were more satisfied with the faculty field liaison. Overall, trained instructors demonstrated expected supervisory behavior more often than untrained instructors for 75% of the 83 supervisory activities studied, although only a limited number of comparisons reached statistical significance.     

Emerging Social Work Field Education Trends in China

MSW field education in China has been adopting Western models. However, this adaptation cannot address all educational and professional training needs in China. This study used an exploratory qualitative study design and interviewed 54 MSW students regarding their field experiences at a university in Shanghai. Results revealed six key themes: field education curriculum design’s influence on student field experiences, faculty advisers’ influence on student field experiences, field agencies’ expectations toward MSW intern performance, field agencies’ capacity to host MSW interns, student perceptions of their professional competencies, and students’ coping strategies to manage challenges in field practicum. Competency-based social work field education is a potential solution to address the current social work field education challenges in China.     

Social Work Field Instructors’ Views and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice

This article presents the results of a cross-sectional study of social work field instructors’ views of and implementation of the evidence-based practice (EBP) process and compares their responses with non-field instructors. A total of 688 National Association of Social Workers/Texas members (107 of which were field instructors) anonymously responded to an online administration of the Evidence-Based Practice Process Assessment Scale–Short. The results suggest generally positive attitudes among field instructors and high levels of familiarity but lower levels of perceived feasibility and engagement in the EBP process. In addition, field instructors and non-field instructors did not differ significantly across the 4 subscales or overall orientation toward the EBP process. Implications and future steps for social work education are discussed.     

Challenges to Bridging Field and Classroom Instruction: Exploring Field Instructors’ Perspectives on Macro Practice

Field education and macro practice have been highlighted as central educational domains in social work education; however, little scholarship has looked at how macro social work practice competencies have been integrated into field-based learning. This exploratory study aimed to gain perspectives from field instructors regarding macro social work and the integration of macro practice into their work with practicum students. Consistent with scholarship that has elucidated the impacts of neoliberalism on social work, including the marginalization of macro practice, emergent themes demonstrated that field instructors face barriers to incorporating macro work into their training of students. Challenges include prevalence of the medical model, time constraints, and funding limitations. Further, field instructors observed gaps among students, their university, and their organizational setting in regard to expectations for integrating macro practice into field education. Recommendations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Community college field placement internships: supervisors’ perspectives and recommendations

ABSTRACT

Community College human services students represent the future social service workforce. The defining feature of their training is 250 h supervised field placement internship. Despite burgeoning research describing best practices for supervision of Bachelors of social work (BSW) and Masters of social work (MSW), there is no research aimed at supervision for community college students, leaving a gap in our understanding of best practices for supporting community college students’ pedagogy and sustaining partnerships with agencies. This exploratory study offers recommendations for best practices supported by our discovery of the benefits, challenges, and strategies involved with offering community college student internships in New York City human services agencies. We analyzed data from semi-structured interviews with 30 field supervisors through qualitative content analysis. Community college students and agencies both benefit substantially from the field placement, however agencies identified significant social and structural challenges specific to working with community college students that require interventions for both field supervisors and students alike. Suggested interventions aimed at improving supervisor training, procedures for focusing goals of supervision sessions, assisting students in meeting their academic and social needs, as well as supporting supervisors’ professional goals to promote best practices are proposed.     

The Impact of Ethnicity and Phase in Training on Israeli Social Work Students' Satisfaction with the Field Instruction

Students' evaluations of their satisfaction with their field instruction including their field instructors, agency, and learning opportunities have been the focus of earlier and more recent studies. However much less is known about students' satisfaction in non‐English speaking countries. Even rarer are studies on how satisfaction differs among diverse ethnic groups and phase of training. This study focuses on the impact of ethnicity (Jewish and Israeli Arabs), and phase of training (second or third years) on the satisfaction of Israeli social work students with their field instruction. Some 742 second and third year students reported their satisfaction on a self‐administered questionnaire. Third year students who had already completed two academic years of training were more satisfied with their field instruction than second year students. Arab students were significantly less satisfied with their field placement agencies. Second year Arab students were also less satisfied with their field instructors and their field instruction in general than second year Jewish students. The lower satisfaction might be true for other minority groups in Western countries and should be further investigated. We recommend increasing cultural sensitivity in the curriculum of social work education as well as preparatory workshops before the beginning of field practice.     

A Comparison of Advanced Standing and Regular Master’s Students’ Performance in the Second-Year Field Practicum

The author surveyed field instructors of second-year graduate students to ascertain the instructors’ assessments of their students’ preparedness for and skill in social work practice. The variable of interest was traditional second-year or advanced placement status. Results indicate that, with few exceptions, there were no differences in field instructors’ evaluations based on status; those that existed favored advanced placement students. The implications of the findings for the continuing debates over advanced placement and an articulated continuum regarding the bachelor’s versus master’s social work degree are discussed.     

“No One Talked About It”: Social Work Field Placements and Sexual Harassment

ABSTRACT

Increasing student safety is an important part of Title IX compliance for colleges and universities. Sexual harassment is an all too common experience for college students, although little is known about incidences in social work field placements. The extent of training and preparation received by students from social work program and field instructors is also unknown. This study explores the extent of training and knowledge about sexual harassment in social work field placements from a sample of 535 BSW and MSW students. Only 51% of social work students received training about sexual harassment, with 21% receiving training from their school’s field office. Participants who had received training felt more prepared to address safety concerns in field. Implications for social work education are discussed.     

A Study of MSW and BSW Students' Perceptions of Their Field Instructors

In the study reported here, BSW and MSW students in field placements and a group of recent MSW graduates were surveyed to assess the impact of personal attributes, supervisory characteristics, and 11 instructional skills on their evaluation of their field instructors. Results indicated that the most influential variables were those representing task-oriented, educational aspects of field instruction. In addition, field instructors' availability, their use of process recordings, and the amount of supervision they gave students also influenced respondents' evaluations.     

Commitment to Community Practice Among Social Work Students: Contributing Factors

It is important to develop commitment to community practice among social work students to encourage their engagement in this field as professionals later in life. This research examines factors that affect commitment to community practice among social work students. A structured questionnaire was administered to 277 social work students in one university and one college in Israel. The findings indicate three main factors that explain variance in commitment to community practice: specific self-efficacy for this field, positive experience in a community project during training, and experience with politics. Surprisingly, theoretical studies and support for community work during supervision did not significantly contribute to explanation of commitment to community work. The findings are discussed.     

Attachment-informed Supervision for Social Work Field Education

Supervisory relationships present a new population for the application of attachment theory, and conceptualization of attachment-informed supervision training offers a new direction for study. This paper presents an 8-month model of supervision training for social work field instructors of MSW students. The training’s design incorporates primary attachment concepts with an understanding of the supervisory working alliance and parallel process. An overview of the in-person and on-line pilot training is presented, including perceptions from the participants regarding the training’s usefulness. This training program has implications for effective social work field education, and recommendations are suggested for future attachment research on supervision.

Queens Field Instruction Center: A Field Instruction Center for Multilevel Education in Social Work

This paper will describe the organization and educational program for undergraduate and graduate social work students in the Queens Field Instruction Center, an administrative unit that provides a closer working relationship between schools of social work and social agencies on all levels. The center's structure and program allow for the concurrent and integrated placement of social work students. Research opportunities are offered to identify and conceptualize the outcome and learning experience for each level. The field instruction program offers further research possibilities in examining whether multimethod training provides students with skills equal to those receiving single-method training.     

Field Placements in For-Profit Organizations

The recent explosion of proprietary social services suggests that growing numbers of social work students may be placed for field work in organizations whose primary goal is the realization of profits. Information on the extent to which social work programs collaborate with proprietary agencies for field education purposes is unavailable. This article describes the results of a national survey to determine the use patterns and policies of master of social work programs regarding field placements in for-profit settings. Findings indicate that social work education is incorporating proprietary sites for field training at an unparalleled rate. Proprietary sites used most often are hospitals, nursing homes, and outpatient health care agencies. Furthermore, the study links different policy positions on for-profit placements to geographical location. The author suggests, among other recommendations, that programs provide positive role models to help students apply professional values and ethics to problems resulting from proprietary influence upon practice.     

Entwicklung beruflicher Ressourcen durch Supervision — Eine Untersuchung im ambulanten psychiatrischen Bereich-

Based on stress-and resource-theories in a questionnaire study (N = 110) the effects of supervision on the development of job-related resources, perceived control and self-efficacy against job-strains are examined at employees of ambulant psychiatric institutions. The results show perceived improvements by supervision especially for the factors “professional resources” and “social support by colleagues/management”. Specific relationships between these factors and characteristics of the setting as well as the supervisors and the subjects are evident. Above all, perceived improvements of “professional resources” correlate with higher supervision-satisfaction, improvements of the job-situation, control and self-efficacy. On the other hand, the factor “social support by colleagues/management” plays a smaller role. The assumed positive correlation between indicators of health and the factors “control” and “self-efficacy against job-stress” could not be confirmed.     

The Role of Students

This article describes the experience of one school's change in curriculum direction with emphasis on the issues and concerns regarding parallel changes in the field instruction program. The process observed by the Task Force on the Practicum at Fordham in maximizing involvements of and communication with the cooperating agencies is outlined as is t he program projected for engaging the field instructors in considering the implications for them of a generic field instruction course for first year students. The article also contains the paradigm developed by the Task Force to sample the nature of the field assignments and the analysis of the findings from the data.     

Beware of Greeks? Some aspects of intercultural communication in international training programs for educators

The last decade has witnessed a growing number of international exchange and training programs for educators, particularly in the areas of social studies. Dramatic changes in Central and Eastern Europe made the western, particularly the American, experience in civic education and teaching for democracy more and more desirable. In many instances, instructors from the US and western Europe have acted as experts in those programs. However, there are observations that challenge the success of the ‘West as Expert model.’ In the described study, a group of Russian faculty and administrators of teacher‐training universities was probed on questions regarding their attitudes toward foreign and native teachers and instructors. The results of the study demonstrate that, despite unanimous support for international education, all respondents, regardless of the length of their professional experience, demonstrated a slight preference for Russian teachers and instructors compared with foreign teachers and instructors. This preference is a result of differences in school cultures, determined mainly by specific features of every school, local cultural traditions, and prejudices and misconceptions of the local population.     

Field Instructors' Commitment to Student Supervision: Testing the Investment Model

The aim of the study was to examine field instructors' commitment to student supervision, using an adapted form of the Investment Model, which consists of six components related to supervision: rewards (positive aspects of the job), costs (negative aspects of the job), degree of investment in the job, quality of alternative jobs, satisfaction of the job, and commitment to the job. A non‐purposive sample of 178 field instructors of bachelor‐level social work students completed mailed questionnaires. The findings show that the greater the rewards, the greater the field instructors' commitment, investment, and satisfaction. On the other hand, higher job cost was inversely related to commitment, satisfaction, and investment. Job satisfaction mediated between rewards, cost, investment and job commitment. The article helps to illuminate some of the factors associated with field instructors' commitment to undergraduate student supervision and suggests ways of increasing it.     

Ethical and Legal Issues in Field Education

The social work student, field instructor, and field education staff create a series of complex relationships with multiple tasks, responsibilities, and liabilities. All too often, it is unclear how and in what capacity all of these individuals should interact. The authors highlight key issues in field education: professional boundaries, ethical responsibility, and legal liability for students, field instructors, and the school’s field staff. The authors also provide examples to illustrate potential liability in the context of each relationship involved in the field education experience. In addition, they make specific recommendations to help reduce the risk of making mistakes and to improve the quality of social work field education.