DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING PLAN

During the three-course practice sequence attention is given to helping students identify their areas of particular interest within the field of social work. They are encouraged to develop increasing self-awareness regarding their practice strengths and areas which need additional work to achieve competence. During classes and through the advisement process, (especially the advancement interviews). students begin to fit their unique learning needs to specific fields of practice as well as to agencies in which they are interested. This process culminates in an assignment that requires the student to put these learning goals into writing. The student takes this plan to the agency at the beginning of the first practicum, when he/she and the field instructor work out a more detailed version of the learning plan that is geared to fit the learning experiences available at the agency at the time as well as the program objectives of the social work program and the student. This learning plan is used as the basis for structuring the field experience and provides a context for the on-going evaluation of the student's progress. This process is repeated for the second practicum setting.