Unit rationale, description and aim

To facilitate and effect change in complex situations social workers need to be able to apply practice approaches flexibly and appraise their efficacy when working with diverse groups of people, while maintaining their professional responsibilities and accountabilities.

In this unit, students will learn to critically appraise different practice approaches and their flexible application considering lifespan perspectives, diversity, power, gender and culture when working with service users. Students will be required to reflect critically on their professional accountabilities and responsibilities and how this develops their professional judgement and decision making with respect to human rights, safety and risk. At the end of the unit, students will be required to formulate and articulate a practice approach and justify their planned professional actions which will prepare them to enter the social work profession.

The aim of this unit is to extend students’ knowledge of practice methods and develop advanced skills for working with service users and within complex human service environments, and to critically appraise and evaluate their practice as emerging social work practitioners.

2026 10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.

Prerequisites

SWTP333 Social Work Field Education 1 AND SWTP339 Law and Social Work AND SWTP335 Social Work Practice Skills with Communities

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Critically appraise different practice approaches ...

Learning Outcome 01

Critically appraise different practice approaches and select the most appropriate to promote change and social justice and address service user strengths, need, safety and risk.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC6, GC9, GC11

Critically reflect on ethical responsibilities to ...

Learning Outcome 02

Critically reflect on ethical responsibilities to support assessment of need and risk and justify professional actions.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC3, GC8, GC9, GC11

Demonstrate understanding of use of self and skill...

Learning Outcome 03

Demonstrate understanding of use of self and skills to work collaboratively, inclusive of culture and diversity and within the accountabilities of professional practice standards and ethics.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC3, GC4, GC5, GC12

Demonstrate assessment skills using different asse...

Learning Outcome 04

Demonstrate assessment skills using different assessment approaches and compose a plan to address complex need, safety and risk.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC7, GC12

Content

Topics will include:

Professional knowledge

Theories and practice approaches:

  • Critical anti- oppressive, decolonisation and anti-racism theories and skills and strengths- based practice
  • Psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural approaches
  • Trauma theory and trauma informed practice
  • Client centred - Narrative and solution -focussed approaches, motivational interviewing
  • Mindfulness approaches and skills
  • Task centred and crisis intervention approaches
  • Key practice concepts in the professional helping process – strengths, safety, risk, change (micro, meso and macro levels), social justice and human rights.
  • Critical appraisal of different approaches (strengths and limitations) considering lifespan perspectives, diversity, power, gender and culture


Professional values and ethics

  • Professional responsibilities and accountabilities and ethical decision making per the AASW Code of Ethics and Practice Standards.
  • Professional judgement and critical reflection skills


Professional skills

  • Assessment and intervention skills- Strengths based assessment, risk assessment, trauma informed assessments
  • Planning for change – practice methods e.g., Motivational interviewing, CBT and DBT
  • Professional relationship – collaboration, partnership, inclusive practice
  • Working respectfully with service users from diverse and historically marginalized backgrounds including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.


Skills for evaluation of evidence based and reflective practice 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks for this unit enable students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome.  The unit employs an authentic assessment approach using practice scenarios and skill development workshops to assess professional knowledge, skills and ethics commensurate with an emerging social work practitioner. The assessment tasks include -

(i)                  Written critique of a practice approach (20%), [LO1, LO4]

(ii)                Case analysis (40%), [LO1, LO2]

(iii)               Skills assessment – Oral presentation – mock job interview presenting their practice approach to a given case scenario (40%) [LO1, LO2, LO3 & LO4]

The assessment tasks are scaffolded so students can utilise the practice approach they have appraised in the first assessment and their learning of professional accountabilities in the second assessment in their oral presentation in their final assessment.

To pass this unit, you are required to meet the attendance and assessment requirements and demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome, pass hurdle tasks, and obtain a minimum mark of 50% in graded units.

The Skills assessment is a hurdle requirement in this unit. Should a student fail this assessment they will be offered a second chance to undertake the assessment. T

Overview of assessments

HURDLE ASSESSMENT - 80% attendance requirement h...

HURDLE ASSESSMENT - 80% attendance requirement hurdle for lectures and tutorials

Weighting

Hurdle Assessment

Written critique of a practice approach – studen...

Written critique of a practice approach – students will use their appraisal skills to evaluate a practice approach and provide a rationale for practice application which considers core concepts of change and social justice and addresses service user strengths, need, safety and risk.

Weighting

20%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Case analysis – students are required to critica...

Case analysis – students are required to critically analyse practice issues in a case scenario and critically reflect on their professional actions in accordance with professional responsibilities and accountabilities. 

Weighting

35%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC6, GC8, GC9, GC11

Skills assessment (Oral presentation) – assesses...

Skills assessment (Oral presentation) – assesses students’ skills to formulate and articulate their practice approach to a given case scenario provided in a mock job interview.

Weighting

45%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

An authentic learning and teaching strategy is utilized in this unit encouraging final year students to draw on their learning experiences from their first field education placement. This unit extends students’ discipline knowledge and how to appraise different approaches for application to their practice in different service delivery settings. Students will develop assessment skills and how to plan and evaluate their professional actions to promote change and social justice and address service users’ strengths and needs.

The unit is the final in a series of practice skills units (SWTP110, SWTP216, SWTP319) in the Bachelor of Social Work program designed to scaffold student learning of professional practice and develop their professional capabilities. This unit commences with advancing students’ professional knowledge of different practice theories and approaches and exploring key practice concepts relating to change at the individual, organizational and societal level, incorporating social justice and human rights principles. Students will explore their professional responsibilities and accountabilities regarding safety and risk and in accordance with professional standards and ethics. By the end of the unit, students will be able to articulate their professional stance and justify their professional judgement and actions as emerging social work practitioners.

This unit is delivered in attendance mode on campus. The teaching and learning strategies for this unit include lectures, small group discussions and experiential skill development workshops/tutorials, including role play and reflection on practice activities. This unit assists students to forge their professional identity and develop their professional judgment, using written and verbal reflection exercises.

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS OF UNIT 

This Unit incorporates professional social work skills based teaching and learning, and therefore has an attendance requirement of a minimum of 80% attendance at weekly lectures and the skill development and practice tutorials.

An attendance record for weekly lectures and tutorials will be kept.

Reasons why attendance is required 

In tutorials, you will be interacting with other students and developing skills which you will use in your professional/clinical experience. Students who do not attend are at risk of not developing the required knowledge and essential skills.  

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

DeVito, J.A. (2016). Communication skills in social work and human services, 1st, Pearson, England.

Harms, L., (2015). Working with People – Communication Skills for Reflective Practice. (2nd Ed.), South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Geldard, D., Geldard, K., & Foo, R. Y. (2021). Basic personal counselling: a training manual for counsellors (Ninth edition.). Cengage

Higham, P. E. (2020). Communication and interviewing skills for practice in social work, counselling and the health professions. Routledge.

Lee, M. Y. (2023). Integrative body-mind-spirit social work: an empirically based approach to assessment and treatment (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195301021.001.000

Maidment, J., Egan, R., Tudor, R., and Nipperess, S. (2022). Practice skills in social work and welfare: More than just common sense (4th edition). Routledge.

McAuliffe, D., Chenoweth, L., & Boddy, J. (2022). The road to social work and human service practice (7th edition.). Cengage Learning Australia

Pomeroy, E. C., & Garcia, R., (2017). Direct Practice Skills for Evidence-Based Social Work : A Strengths-Based Text and Workbook, Springer Publishing Company, 2017.ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/acu/detail.action?docID=5164324.

Quiros, L. (2020). Incorporating Diversity and Inclusion into Trauma-Informed Social Work : Transformational Leadership. (1st ed.). Taylor & Francis Group

Reith-Hall, E., & Montgomery, P. (2022). The Teaching and Learning of Communication Skills in Social Work Education. Research on Social Work Practice, 32(7), 793–813. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315221088285

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