Roxanne Power

Evaluating a Measure of Student Field Performance in Direct Service: Testing Reliability and Validity of Explicit Criteria.

This study examines the reliability and validity of a measure to evaluate student field performance. Results demonstrated a consistent factor structure with excellent internal consistency, however, there was inadequate consistency between ratings of individual students in their first and second field education experiences. The measure had some predictive validity in that it could differentiate between students identified as having difficulty in Year 1 of the program, but not in Year 2. Scores were significantly associated with academic grades. Implications for future instrument development and the process of evaluation are considered.

Toward New Approaches for Evaluating Student Field Performance: Tapping the Implicit Criteria Used by Experienced Field Instructors

Abstract This study determined the reliability of ratings and consistency of descriptions generated by experienced field instructors using only their acquired practice wisdom as a framework to evaluate students. Ten field instructors independently divided 20 student vignettes into as many categories as necessary to reflect various levels of student performance, described their categories, and ranked the individual vignettes within each category. The independently generated categories and their descriptions were very similar across instructors, and the inter-rater reliability was very high both for the placement of vignettes into categories (0.77) and the rankings (0.83).

New Field Instructors’ Perceptions of Institutional Supports for their Roles

Evidence indicates that the turnover of field instructors is high, thus threatening the quality and costs of social work education. To determine the factors that contribute to the high turnover rate, the authors surveyed new field instructors. The authors examined the influence of institutional supports offered by the practice setting and by the university on intention to continue and actual continuance, as well as intrinsic rewards and personal issues. The results contribute to an understanding of the career path of field instructors and suggest new short-term strategies to increase retention of field instructors. The authors conclude that the voluntary and somewhat precarious nature of university—agency partnerships for social work education needs to be reconsidered.

Educating Field Instructors and Students to Deal with Challenges in Their Teaching Relationships

Abstract In an attempt to facilitate productive relationships between students and field instructors a series of educational workshops were offered to provide the knowledge and interpersonal skills associated with satisfactory learning partnerships. This paper presents the content and format of these workshops that aimed to address crucial topics identified as challenges for students and field instructors. These topics are (a) improving communication in providing reciprocal feedback about teaching and learning, especially about the working relationship; (b) attending to and managing perceptions and incidents related to the power differential inherent in the student and field instructor roles; (c) developing skills for effective conflict resolution.

Effectiveness of a faculty development program on interprofessional education: A randomized controlled trial

Evidence of the effectiveness of interprofessional education (IPE) is largely untested. In particular, assessing the best model for educating clinical faculty about IPE and whether it impacts their teaching remains a challenge. The IPE literature recognizes that skilled, knowledgeable, interprofessional faculty facilitators are integral for the successful implementation of IPE interventions. For collaborative practice (CP), however, there are gaps in our educational knowledge base. First, the literature falls short in outlining how faculty should learn how to teach interprofessional collaborative practice. Second, the literature offers little in the way of empirical accounts of the effectiveness of these sparse descriptions for faculty development.

Teaching Note—Social Work Serial: Using Video-Recorded Simulated Client Sessions to Teach Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT Simulation, the use of trained actors as simulated clients, has gained empirical support as an effective teaching and assessment method in social work education. The associated costs involving the use of live simulation, however, often pose a barrier and prevent less resourced schools from implementing this pedagogical approach in the classroom. Social Work Serial is a pedagogical project that used video-recorded simulated client sessions as an alternative to live simulation. In this teaching note, we will describe step-by-step production and implementation processes involving the project and discuss the implications of video-based simulation for social work education.