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BSW

Description

Social work field education, an integral component of the B.S.W. curriculum, provides a comprehensive learning experience that includes the placement of social work students in educationally-supervised agency settings and bi-weekly field integrative seminars.  It is in agency-based practice settings that social work students have the opportunity to apply and build upon the principles, concepts and theories of generalist social work practice as taught in the social work curriculum.  Field integrative seminars complement and enhance the agency-based field experience.  Upon successful completion of the field education experience, the students, trained for entry-level generalist social work practice, are able to provide a range of services to help address the personal and social problems experienced by people in a multicultural society.

The School of Social Work supports a concurrent field placement model.  This means that students take additional required social work courses and, possibly, elective courses, simultaneously with their field education course.  B.S.W. social work courses are scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays, and/or Fridays to enable students to be at their field agency on Tuesdays and Thursdays unless otherwise arranged with the field supervisor and faculty liaison.  B.S.W. students are placed in one field agency for the two required semesters of field education.  They must have a minimum of 400 professionally supervised hours of agency-based practice experience completed by the end of the second semester.  Students are expected to complete 16 hours/week during the two semesters.

After completing a field orientation at the beginning of Fall semester, students enter field placement approximately three weeks into the semester.  The delayed field entry allows time for weekly orientation and field seminar meetings prior to the student’s first day in the agency.  This provides a structured time frame to review the goals, objectives, and learning outcomes of
SW 4930/4940; to discuss agency, school, and student expectations; to review field education policies and procedures; and to clarify roles and responsibilities of the student, field supervisor, and faculty liaison.

Prior to field placement, field supervisors are invited to attend a field supervisors’ training.  The purpose of the training is to familiarize supervisors with the B.S.W. program objectives, curriculum, and, specifically, the field education component and to provide tools and information to aid and support field supervisors in their teaching role.  Throughout the year there is opportunity for additional training.  At the end of the academic year, feedback is solicited from field supervisors about the overall B.S.W. program and the field component.  Feedback and suggestions are presented routinely by the field director to both faculty and the field advisory board to inform field education, B.S.W. curriculum, and the overall B.S.W. program.


Purpose and Objectives

The primary purpose of field education is to enable the social work student to apply BSW generalist social work knowledge, values, and skills in a practice setting and apply critical thinking skills in the integration of academic learning with field-based practice.  The BSW program objectives have been operationalized into learning outcomes for field education.  The learning outcomes define practice in general terms applicable to a range of practice settings.

The fifteen learning outcomes for the BSW field experience are:

  1. Demonstrate critical thinking skills in the application of social work knowledge, values, and skills.
  2. Demonstrate application of social work knowledge, values, and skills with individuals (micro practice). 
  3. Demonstrate application of social work knowledge, values, and skills with families and groups (mezzo practice).
  4. Demonstrate application of social work knowledge, values, and skills with organizations and communities (macro practice).
  5. Demonstrate an understanding of the community in which the field site functions (i.e., demographics, strengths and resources, special issues, etc.).
  6. Demonstrate understanding of the field site– its history, mission, goals, structure, policies, client systems, service delivery, and role in the community.
  7. Demonstrate professional behavior that reflects the application of the values and ethics of the social work profession.
  8. Demonstrate the application of theoretical frameworks supported by empirical evidence to understand individual development and behavior across the life span and the interactions among individuals and between individuals and families, groups, organizations, and communities.
  9. Demonstrate understanding of the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination as they impact client systems and the field site’s service delivery and apply strategies of advocacy and social change that advance social and economic justice.
  10. Identify, formulate, and influence social policies that impact on client systems and service delivery at the field site.
  11. Identify relevant research studies and demonstrate the application of findings to practice.
  12. Demonstrate empirical evaluations of one’s own practice interventions.
  13. Demonstrate application of oral and written communication skills differentially across client populations, colleagues, and communities.
  14. Demonstrate responsibility for professional growth and appropriate use of supervision.
  15. Formulate personal learning outcomes related to one’s interests/needs that can be addressed within the context of the field placement.