2001 by the City University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.The student is placed in a school setting under the LINK Project. The placement is arranged with the school rather than with the welfare agency which provides school social work services.
Taking into consideration the fact that there would be long school vacations during the placement period, the student started her placement in January, three weeks earlier than the University's schedule. As an effort to facilitate the student to tune in with the school setting as early as possible, a special meeting was arranged for the student and her field partner to meet the school principal, the counseling master and the two year- three placement students who would soon leave the school. Another meeting was arranged to meet the school social worker. During the meeting with the school principal and the officer-in-charge of the counseling department, the expectations of the school were made clear.
The student and her field partner had a good start by taking up a mass program to be held in late January. They had some lead-time to understand the school system, its expectations, opportunities for learning and practice, and prepare for their learning with the help from the two year three students. In understanding more about school social work and the uniqueness of this placement, the student was given reading materials and a file containing relevant information and reference. Reference books were borrowed to the student for easy reference.
The student was able to catch up with the operational procedures and regulations of the placement setting. She made good effort to explore and to consult the instructor, the school social worker, and the counseling master of the school. In the initial period, she was able to adjust herself to meet with the demand of this particular setting.
In the first half of the placement, the student mainly worked on several programs together with her field partner and she also worked with a group of ten S1 (secondary one) students who experienced difficulties in learning.
The student had direct working experience in
The student worked very hard and her workload was above the average. She was appreciated in carrying out the many programs for students.
On the other hand, the student took the initiative to talk to students during the lunch hour and recess. She was making good progress in contacting students and establishing working relationship with some students who came to the counseling room after lunch. She has made very good and insightful reflections in her daily log, sometimes before fieldwork supervisions, regarding her work, experience, inquiry cases, and other issues.
The work progress was satisfactory. The student had tried good effort to keep the schedule under control. The principal and the teachers of the school also tendered adequate support to help the student and her partner to tune in the school system and to facilitate their planning and implementation of the programs. She has attended meetings of the counseling department of the school and worked with the officer-in-charge. She also consulted the school social worker on specific cases on several occasions and assisted in carrying out a program designed by the worker. She also took the initiative to ask for attendance in the joint discipline and counseling teachers meeting.
She will have an opportunity to work with the school principal for the Parent Teacher Association to carry out a parent-child computer and World Wide Web training program during Easter school holiday and another educational camp for S5 students after the placement.
2.1 Integration of knowledge with practice
The student demonstrated very good awareness of consolidating experiences into knowledge. She tried very good efforts in using the daily log and supervision sessions in reflecting her observations and experiences. She showed good progress in developing the ability and competence in reflection of fieldwork learning.
Regarding the setting, the student has gained much knowledge about the school and the service even though the placement is not arranged by a social service agency. It included the working strategies under a secondary setting and especially under direct accountability to the school authority, the balance between social work professional service delivery, the school's policy and its pattern of service delivery. She was helped to appreciate the differences of the other disciplines and how to work with them.
The student was able to grasp the knowledge of how to perform the role of a student social worker in this particular setting and arrangement by reflecting on her own experience in her daily log. She was also able to recognize the service integration of the school social work into the school community. She had good reflection on how to uphold social work values, such as confidentiality and acceptance attitude in a school setting. She also gained knowledge on adolescents' psychological and social needs.
She learnt a lot on how to design a systematic intervention plan and program means according to the stated objectives. She was aware of the generalist orientation and was also able to demonstrate an adequate understanding of adolescents and the problems usually encountered by young people. She showed a good awareness in applying the relationship skills in the initial contact with the students.
The programs provided her with plenty of opportunities to use knowledge of various kinds. She was highly aware of the need to apply classroom learning and she was able to learn independently from her own practice. She also tried to apply task-centered group work in her practice with a group of ten students. She was able to demonstrate the use of the practice model to guide her intervention strategies.
2.2 Professional practice and service delivery
Relationship skills in engaging clients, developing trustful relationships, handling testing-out behaviors, and working with different school personnel were shown in this first half of the placement. Besides, adequate abilities in assessing the potential needs of most of the clients, understanding clients' presenting problems, and anticipating possible difficulties were shown.
The student had no difficulties in relating to clients. She was well received by the secondary students. She showed very good initiative in using the outreaching approach to contact the students. She was able to enroll students to join the programs and was able to use appropriate tools and design some programs to facilitate her work with help from the instructor. The student began to develop her repertoire of intervention skills, including casework, and especially in group work and school based counseling. Together with her partner, she succeeded in completing the programs by involving various parties, responding to their interests and needs, designing intervention, clarifying expectations, assigning tasks, and helping the group leaders to perform.
She made good effort in preparing the first draft of the learning contract, which had been improved after consultations and subsequent discussions with the instructor.
She started to provide inquiry service to the clients at a very early stage due to an early preparation, including pre-placement supervision sessions and active outreach contacts with them. She demonstrated competence and confidence in working independently. In handling difficult situation, she was able to be persistence.
2.3 Performance in the staff/professional roles
As the LINK project was a new arrangement of the Department of Applied Social Studies, she had to pay extra effort in understanding the service. She had referred to some of the salient documents related to the service and understood the philosophy underlying the service and the limitations of the existing arrangement. The student had an adequate comprehension of the school system, its policies and operations and expectations of the students and she had made effort in talking to the staff to carry out her work.
The student had no problem to follow the regulations and rules of the school. She has proved herself to be an active, initiative and hardworking worker. She had no problem in adapting to the working environment. She was aware of the importance of taking initiative to relate to the teachers and other staff. She reflected and discussed issues related to the different roles of the social worker and the teacher.
She gained a good understanding of the social service agency, which provides school social work service to the school. She also gained some insight to the agency through her meetings and consultation with the school social worker who was a graduate of this Department.
She was able to use the resource of the school and outside the school. With guidance, she gained a much better understanding of how to engage the clients, promote her programs, recruit participants, design program media, train the leaders, and intervene in her group. She was able to make good use her past experience to build up working relationships. The student was aware of the social work principles, especially the importance of confidentiality, and at the same time being accountable to the authorities of the school.
She met the expectations of the school and showed a good understanding of the limitations of the school settings. She was productive in the task assignment within the time frame.
2.4 Fieldwork learning and professional development
The student is deeply concerned about the quality of service and has tried to improve the service to the clients. She has read some relevant materials for her own practice. She was open to share her own feelings, to accept criticisms, and was able to learn from her own experience. With encouragement, she was able to plan how to use the supervision time and set the agenda for the supervision meetings. She has frequent consultations with her field-partner to solve the problems in practice and service delivery.
2.1 Integration of knowledge with practice
The student is suggested to fine-tune some skills, such as, applying cognitive restructuring, intervening in clients' social networks, managing contingent rewards, clarifying clients' common goals, increasing interaction around the common goals, clarifying values, clarifying needs to school administration, and obtaining school support. As she was placed in a secondary setting, she should be more alert to the organizational structure, lines of authority, importance of open and two-way communication and the process of decision-making, which would affect her practice and her clients. She is suggested to develop and demonstrate her ability in drawing a broad range of social science knowledge in conceptualizing her roles, analyzing the issues, and in understanding the dynamics among clients, their social systems and the outer environment at large. She is encouraged to further develop her ability in integrating various conceptual frameworks to guide her own practice.
On the other hand, she is encouraged to generate her own comments on the feasibility of certain theoretical constructs, as well as consolidating her own learning and practice experiences.
More readings and discussion on the theories and concepts and the use of group work approach in facilitating client change are recommended.
2.2 Professional practice and service delivery
The student needs to develop her creativity in program design. She has showed good potential in adopting a positive view in handling constraints and limitations but she still needs to strengthen her capacity in handling difficult situations and cope with different demands at the same time.
The student needs to be more flexible to handle group dynamics and sustain purposeful relationship in accordance with various clients' characteristics. Casework and group work models and knowledge can be adopted in her inquiry cases and her group in the second half of the placement, especially in problem analysis, formulating treatment goals, and guiding intervention strategies and tactics. She needs to pay more attention to assessment, adopting multiple perspectives from different conceptual formulations to analyze the assessment data.
2.3 Performance in the staff/professional roles
The student is encouraged to be more assertive in taking up the role of a social worker. She is also encouraged to learn to appreciate the uniqueness of the specific difficulties in a given client-situation and prepare herself well to take appropriate actions on behalf of her clients.
She is encouraged to share with staff about her work. She needs to learn how to act as the social worker and not just a social work student to share with teachers. More sharing about the views of the social worker with teachers is recommended.
She may continue to identify principles that conflict with each other in situations for discussion in future supervision sessions. She needs to continue to be alert to the operation of the school system and how it fits with the overall needs of the young people, and the strengths and weaknesses of the school social work service.
2.4 Fieldwork learning and professional development
Although the supervision mode in the initial period of the placement was considered to be directive, it is hoped that she will make more effort in trying to be more independent in the latter half. More effort is needed on critical and creative thinking in planning and reflection. She is suggested to learn how to identify and recognize her own strengths and make use of them to complete the tasks in an efficient and competent manner. More analytical, critical and evaluative comments in written assignments are expected and more sharing on her feelings, and more reflection on her achievements are encouraged.
IV. Other comments:
The student is conscientious, hardworking, accountable, and assertive on her own initiative. She demonstrated herself to be a reliable and trustworthy worker. She has made much effort in the learning process. She is encouraged to be more analytical in analyzing issues from different perspectives and to appreciate the importance of working collaboratively with the teaching staff of the school. The student is encouraged to further develop her professional self. Better organization of the agenda for supervision session and more reading are also suggested.
Student: 70149124
Instructor: T Y Lee
Copyright
2001 by the City University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.