The process of practice learning and the organizational responsibility

1. The process of practice learning and the organizational responsibility Anna Metteri and Aino Ritala-Koskinen University of Tampere Vilnius 21 May 2010

2. Content • Legal responsibility • Organisational responsibility: Process of student practice learning and the Year Clock of Collaboration • Experiences and conclusions

3. Legal responsibility • Social work education in social sciences includes statutory practice learning in work places. Both BA and MA degrees have to include statory teaching in work places. (Council od State decree on academic degrees 794/2004.) • Academic social work university network (SOSNET) definition of policy: 30 credits practice learning together • University of Tampere: 33 credits, from which in the work places 13 ECTS (9 weeks) + 15 ECTS (3 months)

4. Organisational responsibility • Building structures • Agreements between university and field placement organisation • Responsibilities of the university • Responsibilities of the field placement organisations

5. 1st field placement is short > it needs to be organized in a careful way, both pedagogically and practically Students need to prepare for the placement >university takes the responsibility by offering teaching (skills seminar, practice theories, social work methods), field placement guidelines, organizing a field visit day and orientation seminar before the placement Preparation and structures

6. Preparation and structures 2. • Field placement organizations and field instructors need to prepare for the placement >university takes the responsibility by offering educations and seminars for field instructors >university offers web page for field instructors and students http://www.uta.fi/projektit/sosunipoli/ Before – during - at the end

7. Process of student practice learning and the Year Clock of Collaboration • September-December: skills seminar, social workers participate in role plays • October: Students’ field visits, students’applications for field placements • October-December: the field placement coordinator negotiates the field placements

8. Process of student practice learning and the Year Clock of Collaboration 2 • January: student´s one day visit to their field placement • February: orientation day for field instructors and students • 15 March to 14 May: field placement, coaching and supervision (one hour a week) in the field placement, (two reflection seminars at the university, two assignments, portfolio) • After the field placement: closing seminar for students and field instructors

9. Impact of field instructor educations • The field instructors have recognized that it is necessary to plan for the field placement teaching and supervision • The field instructors have recognized that the first field placement (for 2nd year students) is focusing on learning • When student’s participation is interpreted through learning it follows that the student has the right to participate in different situations at the work place • There is a difference between those field instructors who have participated in university collaboration and field instructor education and those who have not – the identity of social work teacher

10. Some experiences • The practicalities related to the rights and responsibilities of students at the workplace are important >it is good to make them clear • Students’ learning tasks, constructed in the personal learning plan, are informing the process of coaching and supervision, educational supervision is a special type of supervision

11. Conclusions • Building organisational structures helps the process of students’ practice learning and the process of coaching and supervision of field instructors • Education for field instructors has produced organizational responsibility in developing conditions for students’ learning • Organizational structures and tight collaboration between the university and field instructors helps to blend social work theory and practice >that helps students’ practice learning