- Department: Social Policy and Social Work
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
The module is designed to help apprentices to begin to understand the processes involved in reflecting upon practice and the contexts of practice, to appreciate the ways in which critical reflection can contribute to good practice and to explore ethical issues and dilemmas involved in practice. It will also consider the relationship between reflective practice and professional development.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
The module is designed to help apprentices to begin to understand the processes involved in reflecting upon practice and the contexts of practice, to appreciate the ways in which critical reflection can contribute to good practice and to explore ethical issues and dilemmas involved in practice. It will also consider the relationship between reflective practice and professional development.
Apprentices will develop their ability to:
reflect upon, analyse and theorise their practice.
enhance their skills in assessment and intervention.
deepen their understanding of people with lived experience and social issues relevant to social work practice.
develop a critical understanding of organisations related to social work.
understand the theory and practice of inter-professional working.
Relationship to the domains of the PCF
At the end of this module the apprentices will demonstrate that they have attained the ‘readiness for practice’ level descriptors in the following principal domains:
Professionalism:
Identify and behave as a professional social worker, committed to professional development.
Values and ethics:
Apply social work ethical principles and values to guide professional practices.
Critical reflection and analysis:
Apply critical reflection and analysis to inform and provide a rationale for professional decision-making.
Intervention and skills:
Use judgement, knowledge and authority to understand how to intervene with individuals, families and communities to promote independence, provide support, prevent harm and enable progress.
By the end of the module, apprentices will be able to demonstrate:
A developed understanding of the processes of reflection and its relationship to supervision.
The ability to use critical reflective thinking in order to describe and analyse their personal and professional development, using creativity and imagination.
The ability to use critical reflective thinking in relation to case studies.
A developed understanding of a range of models for assessment and intervention in social work practice, including risk assessment and management, and the ability to apply some appropriately to case studies.
An understanding of inter-professional, multidisciplinary working.
Identify and reflect upon both personal and professional learning.
Apply and adapt theory for lived, real situations.
The module will be taught via weekly 2-hour seminars through Semester 2. Each week the apprentices will be challenged to reflect on specific issues via a range of different material, including research, academic arguments, media representation of social work and social media representations of issues of relevance to social work practice such as poverty. We will also explore the challenges of working with religious and spiritual beliefs and discussing the relative merits of a range of reflective models.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Non-compensatable
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
In accordance with School policy
Banks, S. (2006) Ethics and Values in Social Work, 3rd Edition, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Bolton, G. (2005) Reflective Practice: Writing & Professional Development, 2nd Edition, London: Sage Publications
Cree, V. & Davies, A. (2007) Inside Social Work, London: Routledge
Doel, M. & Best, L. (2008) Experiencing Social Work: Learning from Service Users, London: Sage Publications
Fook, J. (2002) Social Work: Critical Theory and Practice, London: Sage Publications
Fook, J. & Gardner, F. (2007) Practising Critical Reflection: A Resource Handbook, Maidenhead: McGraw Hill
Howe, D. (2008) The emotionally intelligent social worker, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Jones, S. (2009) Critical Learning for Social Work Students, Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.
Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Leap: Experience as a Source of Learning. Prentice Hall, Eaglewood Cliffs.
Moon, J.A. (2006) Learning Journals: A handbook for reflective and professional development, 2nd Edition, Abingdon: Routledge Falmer Moon, J.A. (2008) Critical thinking - an exploration of theory and practice, Abingdon: Routledge Falmer
Munro, E. (2011) The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report - A child-centred system, Cm 8062, The Stationary Office, Norwich. Available at: www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/downloads/8875_DfE_Munro_Report_TAGGED.pdf
Schon, D. (1991) The Reflective Practitioner, London: Arena Ashgate
Thompson, S. & Thompson, N. (2008) The Critically Reflective Practitioner, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Trevithick, P (2012) Social Work Skills and Knowledge: a practice handbook (3rd edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press.