Supervision buddies- transforming social work students' identity in the first year of the programme

As an academic social work team we have based our current programmes on three ‘signature pedagogies’ (Shulman, 2005). Two of these are constructivistic, transformative learning and practice based professional learning. ... [ view full abstract ]

As an academic social work team we have based our current programmes on three ‘signature pedagogies’ (Shulman, 2005). Two of these are constructivistic, transformative learning and practice based professional learning. The statement ‘All learning is change but not all change is transformative” (Mezirow, 2004) resonates with our approach. The transformation we strive for in our first year students is from ‘fresher’ to student social worker, becoming aware of the requirements of professional behaviour as well as beginning to form their social work identity and understanding of the values and knowledge required to be an effective practitioner.
As a development from this, the focus of developing our pedagogical delivery is to recognise the practice related skills students can begin to develop whilst on campus, which will also enhance their practice learning and ensure that as students they begin to integrate theory into practice from the beginning of the programme.
One initiative we have established in our pre-registration programmes is that of a ‘supervision buddy’. Tutors allocate buddies to ensure there is an unusual dyad, a buddy that students would not normally socialise with outside of class. Time is allocated within the timetable for weekly sessions. Tutors spend time delivering the concept and parameters of supervision. Students choose from a variety of quiet areas within the campus and floating tutorial support is on hand during the allotted time. The initial focus of these sessions is to enable students to discuss their learning from taught sessions and identify how this relates to the module learning outcomes and both formative and summative assessments. Students will be able to discuss their transition to student social workers to support their assessment as ‘Ready for Direct Practice’ by the end of the first year of the programme.