Student Satisfaction with Field Placement

Abstract

Students' perceptions of their field placements rarely are taken into account in the literature on field practicum and supervision. This survey of MSW students at a southern university examines factors associated with student satisfaction with field agency, field instructor, and field learning. The survey covers student and agency characteristics, learning goals and structure, supervision, and schoolagency linkages. Students associated the quality of supervision and relevance of learning most highly with satisfaction in their placement experiences. Being treated as a professional in the agency, schoolagency linkages, student characteristics, and amount of time engaged in specific social work activities were found not to be major factors in student satisfaction with field work.

The Impact of Experiential Learning on Professional Identity: Comparing Community Service-Learning to Traditional Practica Pedagogy

“…The internal consistency of the survey was excellent (alpha = .90 for the first placement and .92 for the second), so the difference in overall satisfaction rate between the two groups is surprising, as there appeared to be a greater transformation in the CSL group. As stated earlier, a number of researchers (Fortune & Abramson, 1993; Fortuneet al, 1985; Fortune et al, 2001; Kerson, 2014; Knight, 2001) have found that the quality of field supervision is significantly important to the overall effectiveness of a field placement. What is not surprising is the areas these two groups found most supportive.…”

“…Because a number of researchers (Fortune & Abramson, 1993;Fortune et al, 1985;Fortune et al, 2001;Kerson, 2014;Knight, 2001) have found that the quality of field supervision is significantly important to the overall effectiveness of a field placement, all student participants were given the "Quality of Field Instruction" scale (Fortune et al, 2001) to measure the quality of supervision they felt they received in their placements. This scale includes 11 statements about the field supervisor's behavior.…”

Promoting Readiness to Practice: Which Learning Activities Promote Competence and Professional Identity for Student Social Workers During Practice Learning?

“…Practice learning enables students to begin identifying themselves as social workers and internalising the role (Nixon & Murr, 2006) and it promotes the socialisation of students 'to think and act like a social worker' (Bogo, 2015, p. 318). These are generally achieved through students observing a role model practising social work (Lee & Fortune, 2013); working independently with service users (Fortune & Kaye, 2002); carrying a caseload independent of their practice teacher (Csiernik, 2001); participating in a variety of tasks (Fortune, Feathers, Rook, Smollen, Stemerman, & Tucker, 1985); receiving critical feedback about their own practice after being observed (Fortune, McCarthy & Abramson, 2001;DHSSPSNI, 2010;Bogo, 2015); and self-assessing their practice (Boud, 1995 written records and verbal reports from direct practice, which underpin learning in student supervision (Bogo, 2010;Fortune & Lee, 2004).…”

DipSW students’ satisfaction with practice teaching on their first placement

“…Further studies carries out in the USA investigated the link between supervision style and student satisfaction. Fortune et al (1985) measured student' s perceptions of whether the instructor enjoyed teaching and encouraged ideas. The authors were not surprised when this factor was shown to have the strongest correlation to students' satisfaction with supervision, but it should be noted that the link between time spent in supervision and satisfaction was much weaker.…”