Jan 24, 2008
The everyday experience of practice is rich in potential for learning, as practice educators (student supervisors) are well aware. However, there are considerable barriers to the systematic and sensitive collection of these experiences, with the result that much potential learning is lost.
Mark Doel will analyse the barriers to integrating learning and practice, and he will also present a practical, tested model to help practitioners to sample their practice in a systematic fashion and to share it with others. The model has been successfully developed with qualified and unqualified practitioners in social care and further refined to include an assessment component for continuing professional development. The richness of practice is not lost, yet it is captured in a systematic way so that it goes beyond anecdote. It begins to codify practice wisdom.
Finally, Professor Doel will consider how the practice community can learn from the stories of people who have positive experiences of practice to tell. He will report on a recent project, just concluded, which gave voice to these positive experiences of practice and the wisdom they impart.
Professor Mark Doel is Research Professor of Social Work in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research at Sheffield Hallam University. His research focuses on improving the quality of professional practice in order to improve the quality of services. He has an international reputation in the field of practice learning and teaching, and the use of groupwork and task-centred practice as empowering methods of practice. He was a practising social worker for almost twenty years
Professor Doel is widely published, with twelve books to his
name, most recently Modern Social Work Practice, Teaching and
Learning in Practice Settings; The Task-Centred Book; and Using
Groupwork. He is co-editor of the journal Groupwork, and associate
editor (social work) for Learning in Health and Social Care. He was
elected in 2005 to the Board of the US-based Association for the
Advancement of Social Work with Groups (AASWG).
Recorded at Practical learning: achieving excellence in the human
services, EICC, January 23-25 2008.