EVALUATION OF PRACTICUM

The student's performance is evaluated on an on-going basis through the weekly supervisory conferences with the field instructor. The student is expected to use these conferences in a professional manner; it is important to prepare for them by bringing matters of concern and to maintain a degree of self-awareness which welcomes feedback regarding one's performance in order to facilitate the learning process. Evaluation also takes place in the field seminar, where students help one another to understand their experiences in the practicum. Field instructors are asked to complete a written mid-term evaluation of students, in order to give students feedback on their work. At least once during the practicum a visit to the agency by the practicum director or a faculty liaison will serve as a further means by which to monitor the student’s progress.

The final written evaluation of the student's progress takes place at the end of each practicum. The major tools for this evaluation are the instructor's evaluation forms found in the appendices of this field manual. It is expected that the field instructor and the student will have discussed the areas covered in advance, and that the field instructor will discuss the evaluation thoroughly with the student during or after its completion.

In addition to the instructor's evaluation, the Practicum II student completes a self-evaluation of her/his progress during the practicum. (Practicum I students spend a major part of their time in the Integrative Seminar working on self-assessment and professional goal-setting issues.) The form for this evaluation is also found in the appendices. The intention of this self-evaluation is for the student to engage in a thoughtful independent review of the learning that has taken place during the practicum. In addition to being helpful in completing the evaluation process, this self-evaluation aims at giving the student experience in assumingresponsibility for the on-going process of monitoring one's own professional development, which will continue following graduation.

Students in Practicum II will also have completed an integrative field paper, an evaluation of their own practice, and a research project which will be factored into the evaluation of their work. The field director, upon receiving the instructor’s evaluation, student self-evaluation, the weekly sections of the integrative field paper, written reports on evaluation of practice, the practicum project, and any feedback necessary from either the practicum instructor, field liaison (if other than the field director) or the student, will award the final grade for the field practicum.