On the learning journey: what helps and hinders the development of social work students’ core pre-placement skills?

Abstract

The development and assessment of core skills, including communication skills, are essential pre-requisites before social work students are judged ready for practice placement. This paper presents qualitative data from the first year of a three-year study of an undergraduate module taught jointly to undergraduate and postgraduate students on two qualifying programmes at a university in England.The study considers the impact of video recording in a 'skills laboratory' on social work students' skills development, and compares this with other feedback mechanisms at the pre-placement 'Readiness for Direct Practice' threshold for the different student groups. Responses from 88 students to two questions on factors they identified as the most helpful/least useful for core skills development were collected, using the same questionnaire at three stages of the module. These were analysed using a grounded theory approach. A separate, quantitative analysis showed that assessment outcomes for undergraduate and postgraduate students were not statistically different. In contrast, this qualitative analysis showed that while there was common value for students from self-observation using video, there were key differences in learning preferences between undergraduates and postgraduates in relation to feedback. While undergraduates valued peer support in groupwork, postgraduates preferred feedback from authoritative, independent and credible sources.

Narrative reasoning and coherent alignment in field placement

“…Regarding skill training, practical classroom training in communication skills is experienced as an important preparation for students' field placement and helps students relate communication theories to communication skills. This finding is supported in other studies (Lee & Fortune, 2013;Tompsett et al, 2017) and highlights that classroom training plays an important role in developing students' skills. It may be argued that classroom training is a way to include narrative reasoning in university settings.…”

“…In-class preparation for placement has been proposed to aid students' personal and professional learning as well (O'Connor, Cecil & Boudioni, 2009). The development of communication skills has been found to be particularly essential (Tompsett, Henderson, Byrne, Mew & Tompsett, 2017). Coordination, collaboration and partnerships between schools and workplaces also have been developed (Foote, 2015;Irvine, Molyneux & Gillman, 2015).…”

Using creativity, co-production and the common third in a communication skills module to identify and mend gaps between the stakeholders of social work education

“…Second, we have increased opportunities for formative peer feedback on students' developing skills throughout the module, so that tutors and ULO participants no longer have the monopoly on feedback-giving practices. Peer feedback on formative activities is widely supported in pedagogic research about developing communication and pre-placement skills (Krause et al, 2017;Tompsett et al, 2017). The benefits of peer support were identified in our own evaluation, prompting us to develop this strategy further.…”

Self-Efficacy and Outcomes: Validating a Measure Comparing Social Work Students’ Perceived and Assessed Ability in Core Pre-Placement Skills

“…It is possible the differentiated finding in this study relates to this particular cohort or some factor about undergraduate or postgraduate learning approaches. Students' perceptions of what helps and hinders learning are reported in parallel qualitative data from this research project (Tompsett, Henderson, Mathew Byrne, Gaskell Mew and Tompsett, 2016). Now the SASI inventory has been validated, this establishes the basis for comparing student self-efficacy ratings across stages, with a second cohort, and whilst on placement.…”

“…Section 2, used to collect qualitative data, included two questions, asking students to comment briefly on factors that had been most and least helpful/useful in the development of their skills. Qualitative analysis of responses to these questions contributed to module development feedback processes, and is reported elsewhere (Tompsett, Henderson, Mathew Byrne, Gaskell Mew and Tompsett, 2016).…”