2001 by the City University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.1. Brief description of work undertaken (Please also refer to the attached)
The student has completed all the structured tasks. Also she kept a daily log for reflection. The student worked with a group of ten secondary one students who experienced learning and socialization difficulties. For detail, please refer to the mid-placement evaluation report. She also worked on several assignments together with her field partner in the second half of the placement. One of them was for her and her field partner to plan, organize, carry out and evaluate a sex education program for the school.
She has got much exposure and experience in organizing several educational programs for students. One of them was for both parents and students. She worked independently on the tasks.
Overall speaking, the workload of the student is considered to be significantly above the average. She showed good performance in many areas.
2. Statistics on services (to be rendered by the student)
3. Summary of any additional experience
She attended two kinds of meeting of the school staff, including school counseling team and the joint counseling and disciplinary team meetings. She started her placement much earlier than the other students did, as many school holidays fell within the placement period.
4. Special circumstances, if any, which may contribute to or impede learning
In general, the working environment of the school was supportive. She could make use of chances to discuss and learn from the teaching staff, the counseling master, and even the school principal.
The student has utilized some theories learned in the classroom in the preparation of her proposals and in her practice. For example, she has demonstrated an effort in relating concepts of group work practice and applying the task-centered group work model into her group although there is room for improvement in terms of accuracy and adequacy. She could pick up knowledge from sources other than the formal curriculum, including social science knowledge.
She made very good effort in reflecting on her actions and seeing the connections between knowledge and the practical situations that she encountered.
She has tried effort in articulating the rationale, objectives and planning for her individual assignments. With the help of the instructor, she made improvements in the assessment of the clients before she started to plan for the group program in detail. She was also helped to apply relevant knowledge and research techniques (especially on evaluation) and to make use of her knowledge and understanding of targets and to seek references to support her own practice.
She is encouraged to:
1. critically review in greater depth the strengths and weaknesses of the intervention models used and the complex and multiple role of the social worker in this particular setting;
2. identify the limitations of the knowledge and theories used through practice observations;
3. continue investigation on the meaningful relationship between macro theories and micro theories related to the specific intervention with children and their families; and,
4. continue progress in acquiring knowledge about the characteristics of adolescents and their families.
1. Generalist orientation
She shows a basic understanding of the generalist orientation adopted in the social work curriculum, and to apply such understanding in conceptualizing practice tasks.
2. Generic social work principles
She shows a professional commitment to social work values and principles of the social work profession. While still in the initial stage of acquainting herself with the field of children and youth services, the student is suggested to carry out critical appraisal of concerned social policy, professional practice and service delivery in a secondary setting.
She demonstrates a continued quest for quality of service with client's interest as the primary consideration and pay more attention to issues of cooperating with the teaching profession.
3. Relationship skills
The student's reflective attitude on social work principles for establishing professional relationship is one of her strengths.
She shows effective use of interpersonal relationship skills and demonstrates flexibility and empathic understanding. She has good ability in building up relationship with the client, both in individual contacts and in group settings. She has succeeded in building up relationship with her clients especially in drop-in sessions and the group. However, she needs to improve her skills in working with young people who may not explicitly express their needs or show testing out behaviors.
She is sensitive to her own and clients' feelings. She is suggested to further involve clients in goal setting.
4. Assessment Skills
She shows marked progress in gathering information from clients and assessing their situations, as well as using the professional relationship as an effective tool of intervention to engage client in a helping contract. Regarding her information gathering and assessment skills, these areas deserve more of her attention. She is suggested to develop a practice of collecting client data through formal and informal channels and critically analyze the data from different perspectives.
5. Intervention Skills
The process recording and summary recordings demonstrate her beginning competence in using skills in the intervention. She is creative in designing the programs to facilitate the group's communication and achievement of goals. With the help from the instructor, she has developed good programming skills as indicated in planning and implementation of the educational programs, and in the program planning of the group.
Regarding group work skills, the student was flexible and spontaneous enough to response to needs and questions emerged during the course of group meetings. She is suggested to expose to different leading styles that promote her professional competence as well as enhance the strength of members.
Regarding her skills in evaluation/termination, the student has to pay more attention and effort to evaluate her own practice. She needs to make conscious attempts in constructing assessment criteria, and also the links between objectives and tasks to be performed. There is plenty of room for improvement in developing clear monitoring and evaluating systems in interpreting clients' feedback, and in setting process goals of intervention. She is also encouraged to be more aware of the need to test foreign theories and a range of intervention skills on local situations.
6. Writing Skills
Good writing skills. She is able to produce descriptive as well as analytical reports for various purposes. She is encouraged to write more concisely, trying to integrate content process, and be more critical and analytical in evaluating her own practice.
The student tuned in the setting well. She has attended meetings and had the chance to work with various teachers. She was able to work independently in a secondary setting.
The student has functioned well in the staff/professional role in the placement agency and very good feedback has been received on her performance as a staff. She has been able to establish working relationships with some teachers and learn from the school social worker. The principal is positive about her work attitude and performance. The student has also made meaningful reflections of her practice experience in her daily log.
1. Getting acquainted with the field of service and the practice setting
It was appreciated that the student together with her field partner, took initiatives and made effort to work with the counseling master to carry out several programs in the first few weeks of her placement. Her friendly attitude and initiation to seek for chances of exposure and learning had facilitated her work. As a result, a harmonious and friendly working relationship was observed and good linkage and understanding of the agency was achieved.
2. Orientation and learning about the work setting
There is plenty of room for further exploration in the articulation of the relevance of policies in this particular setting.
3. Understanding of the agency and the host community
The student has taken the initiatives in tuning in the professional roles, engaging into active resource mobilization within the agency, such as colleagues' involvement in planning and implementation of programs.
Although the physical setting of the school was not very ideal (insufficient space for program), the student adjusted to the working environment without much difficulty.
4. Performance in the staff role
Her work has received positive comments from the school.
She was very conscious of time management. Her present and energetic personality enables her to cope with pressure from work and learning at times of uncertainty.
5. Performance in the profession role
She is conscientious about her learning and wishes to make maximum use of her fieldwork placement to try out professional tasks.
She is an enthusiastic and responsible worker. She is conscious of providing good quality services for her clients. This is evidenced in her genuine preparation for the program materials and her immediate self-reflection on her experience and practice.
6. Administrative Skills
Feedback from the school was very good regarding this aspect.
Shows sensitivity, maturity and effective skills in working with different teachers.
Others
She is an enthusiastic worker who is eager to serve her clients and is initiative and active in her own learning.
She prepared and organized for supervision but was unable to hand in her written assignments on time.
1. Capacity to learn from fieldwork placement
She shows a capacity to learn from fieldwork placement with good use of recording and good preparation for supervision. She is able to take initiatives to suggest topics for discussion in the supervision sessions and ready to ask instructor's help if it is necessary.
She makes sound recognition to implement learning derived from supervision in actual practice. Moreover, the student is both open and receptive towards suggestions made by the instructor. She was aware of the importance of written assignments as a tool of learning and has improved her work. Given the heavy workload, the load of the written assignment has been adjusted accordingly. During supervision, she is open and honest in discussing her concerns and seeking for directives from the instructor.
2. Professional development
Able to articulate social work values and ethics and to examine their relevance to social work intervention with groups and program.
She is suggested to pay more attention to cope with value dilemma, critically review issues of inter-disciplinary collaboration, and be alert to current issues and service trends.
Others
She is suggested to make frequent and adequate references to her learning contract in the next placement.
Concluding Remarks:
1. Major strengths/weakness of the student
The student is very hard working. She is appreciated for her sincere and active learning attitude. She is also an enthusiastic and responsible worker who is conscious of providing quality services for clients. She can sustain her strength in this aspect.
She can enhance her own competence in work by better equip herself with knowledge and skills for effective and efficient service for her clients.
She was self-reliant, committed, devoted and enthusiastic about her work. Her involvement and sincere working attitude are commendable.
2. Recommendation for future professional development
She is encouraged to be alert to giving more attention to current issues, policy trends related to children and youth services in general, and services for adolescents and their families in particular. A greater emphasis on practice reflection is recommended, particularly for this service and the multiple role of a social worker.
The student is very hardworking, and conscientious. More better management of her anxiety and her time is encouraged, though I understand, is difficult, but I see the potential of the student as shown in her performance after the completion of the tasks. The student's willingness and confidence in facing difficulties and frustrations are commendable.
The student must prepare herself to take up the highly demanding job of a professional social worker. The achievement motivation and the high standard of the profession together exert great pressure on the student. She has been working hard on it.
Specifically, she is suggested to:
1. enhance her ability to cope with work pressure and uncertainty from working with difficult situations;
2. reflect on her own successful and unsuccessful experiences in this placement and to reflect on practice theories so as to guide her future intervention;
3. adopt a critical approach to review the role of the social worker; and
4. read more relevant literature related to the clientele and to continue the application of generalist social work practice in her future practice.
Remarks of the student, if any
Signatures:
Fieldwork instructor_______________ Date______________________
I have read and discussed this Fieldwork Evaluation Report in detail.
Student __________________Date_______________________________
Student: 70149124
Instructor: T Y Lee
Copyright
2001 by the City University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.