| Research Abstract |
The purpose of the study was to develop the effective teaching methods of the social work skills necessary for the certified social workers. According to our experience of teaching BSW students, field work seems to be more effective, if we can successfully connect what students learn in the field and that in the classrooms. Enhancing the connection, we need a tool which students, field instructors, and university faculties can use in common to describe the field experience and to communicate each other. Therefore, the end result of this study should be the development of the tool for the connection and communication.
The field placement at the special nursing homes for the elderly were selected for the study. According to the students' records of the placement, their activities in the placement were categorized. The time spent for each category was calculated to know what students really do during the placement. Based on the result of the study, three dimensions, at least, were found to be necessary to describe the students' experience. We, therefore, decided to use a form of modules for the tool. The field instructors' opinions were also reflected in the content of the modules.
The content of the modules are ; (1) activities (carework, communications with other agencies, participation in events, field work orientation, casework, and others) x (2) learning objects (individual, family, agency & its services, community, social policy, students' self, general theory, and others ) x (3) learning focuses (communication, problem analysis, planning, intervention, evaluation, and recording). The applicability was tested by five cases selected as typical models for the placement.
The next step of the study will be to develop further the content of each module, and to test the applicability and effectiveness, by utilizing modules and getting feedback from the students, field instructors, and university faculties.
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