Field Instructors Seminar

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Field Instructors Seminar

• Dr. Kathryn Conroy
  June 2007
• Mongolian State University of Education/Social
  Work Department Columbia University School of
  Social Work

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Sources

• This material comes almost entirely from the
  Seminar in Field Instruction Curriculum edited by
  Cheryl L. Franks, PhD, Carmen Ortiz Hendricks,
  DSW, and Jeanne Bertrand Finch, DSW. It is the
  curriculum used to train our Field Instructors.

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January 2007

• Reasons for taking social work students
• Orientation of students at your sites Beginnings
• Developing an Appropriate Assignment Education
  Plans

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June 2007

• Field Instructors are Teachers
• Recordings as Teaching Tools
• Adult Learning Theory
• Methods of Teaching and Teaching Techniques

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Field Instructors are Teachers

• Field instructors are first teachers
• Students are students (not friends, clients, or
  even colleagues, yet)
• Some teaching does involve helping
• The field instructors focus is on the work and
  what students need to learn about social work
  practice

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Field Instructors Changing Roles

• From helper of others to teacher of future
  colleagues (students)
• From one who is supervised or supervises others
  to educator
• From one who does, to one who explains
• From member of an agency hierarchy (worker) to
  member of a school of social work
• From service giver to service critic and analyst

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Field Instructor Self Awareness

• How to deal with
• your own limitations or lack of knowledge
• what makes you anxious
• hostility
• success or failure, especially in relation to
  your role as evaluator
• telling others what to do
• the fact that people do not always do what is
  asked of them.

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Field Instructors are Role Models

• Listening, non-judgmental, open
• not afraid to say, "I don't know!"
• Accepting criticism
• Modeling responsibility
• Modeling that similarities may not imply similar
  perspectives and experiences
• Having the same expectations for self as for
  students
• Demonstrating the importance of consistency and
  structure
• Managing the power differential between field
  instructors and students with respect and
  mutuality.

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Evaluation of Students Orientation

• January we talked about Beginnings
• All, or most of you, have had students
• How did it work out?

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Implementing the Education Plan

• Begin first assignments by the 2nd or 3rd day
• Provide bridges for students from the unfamiliar
  to the familiar
• Take into account students' prior work
  experiences, skills, knowledge, interests, age,
  maturity, life experiences, etc.
• Aim for early success.
• Add assignments to students' workloads over time
  with students reaching full workloads before the
  mid point of the placement.

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Prior to First Assignment

• Make sure students has
• The necessary information to begin the
  assignment.
• Conceptualized the purpose and tasks in the
  assignment.
• Discussed the confidentiality and ethical
  considerations inherent in the assignment.
• Prepared for and understands the significance of
  first contacts with individuals, families,
  groups, committees, communities, or
  organizations.
• Thought about how others may be feeling about
  meeting with students.
• Evaluated own values, beliefs, and biases.
• Planned alternative responses and interventions.
• Identified situations requiring immediate
  consultation and support from the field
  instructor or other staff.
• Developed realistic goals for the first contact.
• Operationalized such skills as contracting,
  exploration, expressions of interest and concern.

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Ethics

• Conflicts of interest
• Confidentiality
• Dual relationships and boundaries

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Recordings as Teaching Tools

• For students, recording their practice can
• Serve as an instrument to guide learning
• Help to clarify the purpose of the activity
• Provide a basis for increasing self-awareness
• Help develop observational skills and expand the
  power of recall
• Help focus the student on problem solving,
  critical thinking, and self-critiquing
  approaches.

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Recordings as Teaching Tools

• For field instructors, student recordings can
• Provide direction and structure for teaching
• Assist in the assessment of the student's ability
  
• Show the extent to which students are able to
  integrate knowledge and theory gained from
  previous experiences
• Provide information about students as growing
  professionals.
• Show the student's ability to collaborate with
  other professionals.

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Field Instructor Comments on Recordings

• Serve as a form of teaching.
• Recognize and respect student's work.
• Can be referred to during field instruction
  sessions.
• Are helpful over time in the process of
  evaluating progress made.
• Can focus the student on learning objectives.

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Student Agendas for Supervision

• Help students comment on their own work
• Help students raise questions about their own
  practice
• Help students trust their own curiosity
• Help students take responsibility for their own
  work
• Help field instructors work with students
  learning needs
• Validate and support autonomous practice

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Adult Learning Theory

• Factors Conducive to Learning
• Informality
• Mutual respect
• Authenticity
• Clarity and pacing
• Non-defensiveness and trust
• Physical comfort
• Openness
• Collaboration

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Four Types of Learners

• Reflective learner
• Operational learner
• Cognitive learner
• Affective learner

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Stages of Learning

• BERTHA REYNOLDS Reynolds (1942) five-stage
  model addresses the stages of learning a new
  task
• The stage of acute self-consciousness
• The sink or swim stage
• The stage of understanding without the power to
  control ones actions
• The stage of relative mastery in which one
  understands and controls ones actions
• The stage of learning to teach what one has
  mastered

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Assessing Student Learning Styles

• First, thoroughly understand
• Students past experiences
• Students intellectual capacities and personal
  strengths
• Students distinctive ways of learning
• Students pace in learning
• Students capacity for interpersonal
  relationships
• And the learning opportunities at the agency

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Assessing Student Learning Styles

• Then address the following questions
• What kinds of social work tasks does the student
  perform quickly?
• What kinds of tasks does the student avoid?
• How flexible and effective is the student in
  organizing and scheduling tasks?
• What most stimulates this student to learn?
• What curiosity does the student have about
  alternative strategies?

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Overcoming Student Resistance

• Involve students in educational planning.
• Help students to identify problems and possible
  solutions.
• Field instructors should ask themselves if the
  resistance is justified.
• Field instructors should gather information on
  students background and culture while reflecting
  on their own background and culture, and the
  impact this has on student/field instructor
  relationships.
• Field instructors should explain their intentions
  early in the field instruction process.
• Explain why a learning issue is important.
• Create situations in which students succeed.
• Congratulate students on achievements, and
  reinforce strengths.

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Overcoming Student Resistance

• Dont push too fast.
• Attend to the need to build trust.
• Admit to the normality of resistance among adult
  learners.
• Be wary of an over enthusiasm for conversion.
• Encourage peer learning.
• Strike a bargain with total resisters.
• Acknowledge students right to resist.
• Find ways of enabling students to think
  differently about the work or situation.

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Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

• Teach through questions
• Could you give me another example?
• What made you think of that?
• Is there another way to think about that?
• To answer this question what other questions do
  we have to ask?
• How would you know if your answer was right?
• If this is true, what else might be true?

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Methods of Teaching

• Didactic
• Offers students information and suggestions
• Experiential
• Provides students with activities and simulations

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Teaching Techniques for Field Instructors

• lectures, articles, videotapes, vignettes
• Role plays
• Probing questions
• Analogies
• Linking concepts
• Partialize
• Identify the specific from the general
• Feedback
• Brainstorming

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Self Evaluation Tools for Field Instructors

• Which teaching techniques have you used?
• Which ones have been more useful?
• Self-monitor field instruction conferences asking
  yourself, How well am I doing?
• How are your students doing? How can you help
  them become more self aware and confident in
  their practice? Are you going too fast? Are you
  expecting too much?
• Are you guiding students to find their own
  professional way of practicing rather than
  imposing your way as the only one?

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Evaluation of Student

• Baseline
• What skills did the student bring to the learning
  situation?
• What knowledge did they bring?
• What values did the student bring with them as
  adult learners?
• What overall abilities and competencies did they
  have?

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Evaluation of Student

• Once the baseline is established assess
• What new skills have students acquired?
• What new knowledge have they incorporated?
• What professional values and ethics have they
  demonstrated?
• Where are students on target?
• Where are changes indicated?

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Evaluation Exercise

• Discuss your student with each other in relation
  to the students
• professional values
• demonstration of social work skills
• accomplishment of the assignment
• students use of supervision
• What other questions arise?

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Termination

• Field instructors should ask themselves the
  following questions
• What is my student leaving with?
• Was the match between my student and myself a
  good fit?
• What were the good things about my experience?
• What would I have liked to be different?
• What did I learn to appreciate?
• If the internship was terminated prematurely,
  what has been the impact?
• How do I feel about my role as professional
  gatekeeper?
• Did I receive the support I needed from faculty
  liaisons and the school?
• Has this experience affected my desire to
  continue as a field instructor in the future?

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Conclusion

• Field instruction is teaching.
• Field instructors use all the methods that
  classroom teachers use plus others.
• Field instruction has a curriculum.
• There are different ways of teaching/learning.
• Often there is a fit between styles sometimes
  there is not.
• Learn from the past look to the future.