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Index: L1 / School Social Work/ Children and Young People / Final placement Self-evaluation / 70144153

Keywords: Inter-professional collaboration / counseling practice / group work practice / recording practice / use of supervision

Final placement Self-evaluation

Abstract: This is the final-placement self-evaluation report written by the placement student. The main areas that the student has evaluated include her relationship and collaboration with the teachers and field partner, recording practice, relating social work knowledge to practice and the use of supervision.

Final-evaluation

Name of student: X

Year of Study: 2             Name of Fieldwork Instructor: X

Name of Agency/Centre: X School

Placement Period: 19/01/00 - 02/06/00

No. of Days Lost: 0 (days)     Reasons: Nil

In this placement, I handled three cases and one group. I also held one mass program with J. In handling the cases, I found inter-professional collaboration (teachers) was important for my casework. It was because the teachers could provide more information about the clients such as clients’ discipline and performance in class. In addition, the teachers could also suggest some ideas for me to handle the cases. For clients L and F, I kept regular contact with their class teachers and discuss with them about clients' changes. I found that it could give me support and encourage me to follow the cases. It also led me to know more about the teacher's situation.

On the first part of my placement, I felt some teachers had some negative response to me. It was because they always told me about the bad performance and behavior of the clients. They did not want to discuss how to know more about them. They also used an angry tone to talk about the clients. Sometimes, they told me that the clients did not want to talk with them, but they would like to talk with the school social worker instead. At that time, I felt the teachers did not want to find out about the clients’ deeper feelings and only punished them.

After I had several contacts with them, I felt this feeling had changed. The teachers disclosed more about their feelings to the student social worker. Sometimes, they did not want us to be overloaded in our job. They feared they needed to continue to work with the clients after we had left. The teachers also discussed more about the history of the clients. For example, some clients would tell different stories about themselves. The clients would also make use of the excuse of seeing the school social worker to avoid attending class.

Contrary to my earlier feelings towards the teacher, I found that the teachers would listen more about the clients. I remembered that a teacher had a great feeling after I told him about the client's feeling. In that particular case, the teacher had asked to see the parents of the student. The student had kept silence and not responded to the teacher. After I told the teacher about the client's negative feeling on that incident, the teacher told me that he did not realize that before. He told me that he would talk to the client about the reason to see his parents and show more concern about his feeling.

I was pleased to cooperate with several teachers. I thought I could understand why teachers differ from social workers in looking at the student's problems. Through discussion with teachers, I felt they were very concerned about their students, but it was a slight difference from the social worker's attitude. I considered what they were concerned about. I kept an open discussion with them to share about what they thought. I could know more about the clients from different views. After that, I felt happier to cooperate with them.

Sometimes, teachers might focus more in students' performance and discipline, but they also concerned about the students’ emotional feeling. However, they used much time on teaching they always used power to control the students' discipline. Therefore, we needed open mind to discuss about the clients. It would lead me think more about the teachers' role and their difficulties. I thought it also an important part of inter-professional collaboration.

On the other hand, I thought professional peer (Joanna) also important in placement. In the half placement, I had more opportunity to cooperate with Joanna. We hold a mass program together. During the process, we discuss more about our placement feeling, and our case study. We shared about our point of view and also gave suggestion to another. I could provide a climate to share our feeling on placement and acted a partner relationship. It also gave us support on tired period.

In a group recording practice, I thought I had some changes in it. At first, I focused on what I did. I mainly described the process of the session. I also mentioned the members' response. It was because I felt what members' learned were the most important things to report on. After supervision, I knew that what I learned was another new focus. Therefore I used more time to think about my experience in the sessions. I also mentioned more about what my thoughts during the sessions. I shifted to not write in details about the members' dialogue and only used summary method to describe the session.

In this recording practice, it would lead me to think more about what I was learning. It also provided another way to view the counseling and group session. Through this process, I used more time to think about my practice experience in terms of approaches, concepts and theories.

In supervision session time, I tried my best to report on what I did during the placement week. My supervisor always aroused me to think more about the differences between a social worker and other persons in terms of how we do things. It means that I should examine my work and the way I use social work theory. I felt I think more about linking practice with the intellectual base of social work. In my experience, I felt sometimes I could not do it immediately. I could only think about it after the counseling session.

For example, with client L, I felt only the sharing of her feeling could not help her to change her attendance in school. I felt she must accept the fact she had to repeat the form and focus on her study. I focused on that point of view to talk with her during the counseling sessions. At that time, I did not think or relate to our study content. After supervision, the supervisor got me to think more about the social work content. Subsequently, I could link my job to the Reality Therapy approach. Although I could not change the previous counseling session, I got a guideline in the following counseling session. It gave me a direction on subsequent counseling sessions. For example, I knew how to set task with her and review with her. It was useful for me to carry out my job.

I remembered that my supervisor mentioned my field partner had expressed her point of view less in supervision. I kept letting her shared first in the last few sessions. But I felt that it was difficult to plan our supervision time. Sometimes, the supervisor would focus on her and discuss her cases. Therefore, I would only summarize what I did in supervision. However, I thought the supervisor's comment on my field partner can be related to me because I thought I could learn from her cases. Therefore I would discuss with her after the supervision session. We could think and discuss more about our supervisor's comment. It reduces the time in repeating the content in supervision session.

Written and revised by: 70144153(student)

Instructor: W M Kwong

Copy Edited by: Phyllis Chee

Commented by: W M Kwong & Phyllis Chee

Copyright 2001 by City University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.

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