Are We Making the Most of Learning From the Practice Placement?

Abstract

It is almost universally accepted within social work education that placements are a defining feature of training and ‘… have a more profound and lasting impact than classroom teaching’. Consequently the placement is regarded as the signature pedagogy in social work education. However, it is also asserted that universities pay little attention to this aspect of teaching and concerns about a ‘significant level of disjunction between academic and practice learning’ are expressed.The development of a new distance learning MA social work programme in which units are studied alongside part-time placements afforded opportunities for innovation in curriculum delivery, alongside increasing connections with learning on placement. Practice educators were invited to respond to an online mixed methods survey exploring their perceptions of the programme and views as to how greater integration of academic and practice learning can be achieved in social work education generally. Analysis of the results identified the important role which supervision with the practice educator can play in integrating learning on placement with the academic curriculum. The paper concludes that a greater focus on learning from practice may offer opportunities to maximise the learning potential of the placement as social work's signature pedagogy.

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