ENHANCING STUDENTS' LEARNING IN SOCIAL WORK FIELD PRACTICUM

Abstract

Social work education comprises an indispensable part ߝ the field practicum, as revealed in the curricula of social work degree programmes all over the world. Here the question is about the positivist curriculum design and fieldwork assessment, which reduces human understanding to matters of technicality. There is a growing discussion about the reflective paradigm – practice wisdom – in human professions, which may be deemed to be more desirable for accommodating the nature of social work practice. A four-dimension framework is developed for the epistemological understanding of practice wisdom, in order to guide research on unravelling how practice teachers exercise pedagogical practice wisdom in advancing students' learning. The findings reveal student factor that might hinder or facilitate practice teachers in bringing pedagogical practice wisdom to their teaching. Implications for those concerned with the enhancement of students' learning in social work field practicum, particularly social work educators, are discussed. 實習是全球社會工作訓練的核心一環，實証主義為本的課程設計及實習評估被受質疑。近年，另一個知識樣式 —— 實務智慧，於人本專業被廣泛討論。它較能兼容社會工作實務特性。作者建立一個四維知識概念架構，展示對實務智慧的理解，並研究實習導師如何使用教學實務智慧，從而為學生帶來良好學習。本文討論一些可促進或阻礙實習導師使用教學實務智慧的學生因素，目的是促進學生在實務上的學習。