Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) is a collaborative programme between five Higher Education Institutions. ALPS aim is to ensure that students graduating from courses in health and social care are fully equipped to perform confidently and competently in their professional careers.
The Open CETL was a collaboration between four of the Open University's Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
A survey carried out by Community Care has found a chronic shortage of statutory practice placements for students in London. This article looks difficulties some student social workers have had in finding a placement, and the poor quality if some placements provided.
This learning object is to introduces Practice Learning Qualification (PLQ) candidates to key concepts and theories relating to communication within the contexts of education, health and social services. It uses the specific context of practice learning within social work education to introduce and explore the themes of verbal, non-verbal and written communication, and communication across diverse situations. In particular it highlights the values and techniques involved in giving and receiving feedback during professional practice learning.
This learning object is one of a set of exercises and activities taken from the book 'Modern Social Work Practice' written by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow. This activity is designed to sensitize students to cultural differences by understanding more about their own cultural inheritance. The student learns that cultural competence is not an absolute quality and that ‘culture’ is not something which is limited to certain groups, classes or races.
This learning object is one of a set of exercises and activities taken from the book 'Modern Social Work Practice' written by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow. This activity helps the student to consider the importance of endings in professional practice and how to make best use of them. Primarily, this is achieved by anticipating endings from the beginning of a piece of work, and by seeing endings as transitions; every exit is a new entrance.
This learning object is one of a set of exercises and activities taken from the book 'Modern Social Work Practice' written by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow. The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to think about how they make decisions when there are conflicting priorities. Too often, these kinds of decisions are made without an awareness of the knowledge, values and beliefs which underpin them. This activity makes these factors explicit and teaches students a framework which will help them to continue to review the way they make decisions.
This learning object is one of a set of exercises and activities taken from the book 'Modern Social Work Practice' written by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow. This resource takes nine principles of partnership practice and asks the student to consider their relevance to a particular piece of work, and how they have been put into practice. The focus here is on empowerment and partnership as essential aspects of the student's anti-oppressive practice.
This learning object is one of a set of exercises and activities taken from the book 'Modern Social Work Practice' written by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow. This resource looks at advocacy and presents seven possible 'hidden agendas' at a hospital ward round. The student wants to advocate for the client to return to his home, but each hidden agenda might explain the other professionals’ involved in the ward round reluctance to accept the student's view. The activity helps students to practise whether and how they might open up the hidden agendas.
This learning object is one of a set of exercises and activities taken from the book 'Modern Social Work Practice' written by Mark Doel and Steven Shardlow. This resource focuses on ways of expressing subtext - the kind of conversation we are accustomed to keeping inside our heads - openly and encouraging others to reveal theirs. This is important as often subtext and hidden assumptions influence our actions.