Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
SWTP321 - Field Education in Social Work 2 OR SWTP333 Social Work Field Education 1
Teaching organisation
Teaching and learning strategies for this unit will include lectures, workshops, small group discussions and Canvas online activities.
Unit rationale, description and aim
Social work practice involves the purposeful use of knowledge to enable effective helping in a range of different fields of practice settings, and with different client groups. This final year unit extends students' ability to identify different sources of best practice knowledge with an emphasis on including client perspectives and consolidating understanding of the diversity of social work practice. The unit gives students the opportunity to develop and demonstrate knowledge of best practice and to articulate their own personal-professional practice framework in a chosen field of practice to enable readiness for future social work employment.
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.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Identify different sources of best practice knowledge used in social work, and assess the usefulness of information from these sources for applied social work interventions | GC1, GC8, GC9 |
| LO2 | Locate and evaluate practice evidence in a specific field of practice | GC3, GC7, GC9, GC10 |
| LO3 | Critically engage with service user and practitioner perspectives on the planning and delivery of social work services | GC4, GC6 |
| LO4 | Analyse current debates and challenges confronting social work service delivery and the application of practice evidence in the articulation of a personal-professional practice framework | GC2, GC5, GC7, GC8, GC11, GC12 |
| LO5 | Evaluate the impact of various cultural and structural factors on the provision of best practice social work | GC6, GC7, GC8 |
AASW Practice Standards
This Unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes provided in the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards: https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/13565
1.Values and Ethics |
2.Professionalism |
3. Culturally responsive and inclusive practice |
4. Knowledge for practice |
5. Applying knowledge to practice |
6. Communication and interpersonal skills |
7. Information keeping and sharing |
8. Professional development and supervision |
ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes
This Unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes provided in the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards: https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/13565
| Standard/Attributes/Criteria | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
4.2 Understand and articulate social work and relevant theories and concepts 4.3 Understand the role of research and evaluation in obtaining and generating new knowledge for practice 4.4 Understand and articulate how and when theories, knowledge bases and knowledge sources inform practice 5.1 Assess and analyse needs to inform practice | 1 |
3.1 Work inclusively and respectfully with cultural difference and diversity 4.3 Understanding the role of research and evaluation in obtaining and generating new knowledge for practice. 5.3 Use a range of specific social work methods and techniques appropriate to area of practice. 5.4 Apply critical and reflective thinking to practice | 2 |
1.1 Practice in accordance with the AASW Code of Ethics 3.1 Work inclusively and respectfully with cultural difference and diversity 4.1 Understand the higher level systemic influences on people with respect to area of practice 5.4 Apply critical and reflective thinking to practice 6.2 Effectively communicate the details and nature of the service offered to people | 3 |
1.2 Manage ethical dilemmas and issues arising in practice 2.2 Behave in a professional manner and be accountable for all actions and decisions 4.1 Understand higher level systemic influences on people with respect to an area of practice 4.2 Understand and articulate social work and other relevant theories and concepts 4.4 Understand and articulate how and when theories, knowledge bases and knowledge sources inform practice. 5.1 Assess and analyse needs to inform practice 5.2 Work collaboratively with relevant people 5.3 Use a range of social work methods and techniques appropriate to the area of practice 5.4 Apply critical and reflective thinking in practice. 8.2 Engage in continuing professional development | 4 |
3.1 Work respectfully and inclusively with cultural difference and diversity 3.2 Respective, strive to understand and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures 4.4 Understand and articulate how and when theories, knowledge bases and knowledge sources inform practice | 5 |
Content
Topics will include:
Best practice in social work
- Evidence based practice: history, critical perspectives and application to social work
- Evidence based practice vs. evidence informed practice
- Linear vs. developmental models
- Sources of empirical evidence for ‘what works’: systematic reviews and scoping reviews, quasi-experimental trials, program and service evaluation; client and practitioner engaged research.
- Theoretical approaches to the use of evidence in social work
Applying skills for researching best practice evidence to a field of practice
- Developing a best practice question: converting your information need about a practice framework or intervention into an answerable question.
- Tracking down the best evidence to answer the question
- Critically appraise evidence for its validity and usefulness in specific practice setting and client group
- Knowledge translation: Critical and ethical appraisal with client's strengths, values circumstances.
Fields of Practice that students may choose from to demonstrate best practice research skills include:
- Health and Ageing
- Disability
- Domestic and family violence
- International social work
- Working with LGBTQI groups
- Community justice/ youth justice
- Rural and remote practice for social workers
- Practice in the time of crisis and change
Social Work Practice Frameworks and interventions
- Case management
- Crisis intervention
- Family mediation
- Prevention frameworks
- Community based interventions
- Consumer participation
- Ethical decision making
- Empowerment and advocacy
- Trauma informed practice
Developing a personal-professional practice framework
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit involves 150 hours of learning with a combination of face-to-face lectures and interactive skill-building tutorials. Students are encouraged to bring their own device to class to support skill development in sourcing best practice evidence. Interactive tutorials incorporate small group reflective and skills exercises to allow students to link social work knowledge and ethics with their emerging personal-professional practice framework.
Assessment strategy and rationale
This unit takes an authentic assessment approach that will allow students to develop skills in researching best practice knowledge. The first assessment is an individual assignment requiring students to identify a field of followed by identification of a best practice question Assessment 2 (Annotated bibliography) will assess students’ competency to identify three different practice evidence sources for their chosen topic. Assessment 3 (Reflective assignment- individual presentation) requires students to demonstrate their learning about identifying best practice evidence for their chosen field of practice topic, with requirement students critically reflect on the value of client perspectives, self and professional identity through the articulation of your personal-professional practice framework.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Individual Assignment: Brief assignment task requiring students to identify a field of practice of their interest followed by identification of particular practice question, and its significance for best practice. | 20% | LO1, LO2, LO4 |
Annotated bibliography: research literature review task requiring identification and summary of three different evidence sources for chosen practice intervention topic/ field of practice. | 40% | LO1, LO4 |
Reflective assignment: In-class presentation enables students to synthesise their learning in the unit through the articulation of a personal-professional practice framework in the chosen topic area that incorporates critical reflection on self, client and practitioner perspectives, sources of knowledge and the relevance to best practice and critical reflection on self and professional identity. | 40% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5 |
Representative texts and references
Alston, McCurdy, S., & McKinnon, J. (2018). Social work : fields of practice (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Chenoweth, & McAuliffe, D. (2021). The road to social work and human service practice (6th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia.
Connolly, M., & Healy, K. (2018). Social Work Practice Theories and Frameworks. In Connolly, M., Harms, L., Maidment, J. (Eds.). Social work : Contexts and practice (4th ed., pp. 21 - 35). Oxford University Press.
Fook, J., & Askeland, G. A. (2007). Challenges of Critical Reflection: “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.” Social Work Education, 26(5), 520–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615470601118662
Fook, J. (2016). Social work : a critical approach to practice (3rd ed.). SAGE.
Hatton, K. (2013). Social pedagogy in the UK : theory and practice. Russell House Publishing.
Mapp, S. C. (2014). Human rights and social justice in a global perspective : an introduction to international social work (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Plath, D. (2017) Engaging Human Services with evidence-informed practice. NASW Press.
Shlonsky, & Ballan, M. (2011). Evidence-informed practice in child welfare: Definitions, challenges and strategies. Developing Practice : the Child Youth and Family Work Journal, 29, 25–42.
Stephens, P. (2013). Social pedagogy : heart and head. Europäischer Hochschulverlag.