Assessing Student Performance in Field Education

As the signature pedagogy of social work education, assessing student performance is a critical component of individual field student and program assessment. A central question is how to measure students' practice competence. Student performance in field education has been evaluated by measuring students' interpersonal skills and practice skills. In addition, the effectiveness of field has been measured through self-efficacy scales, student satisfaction scores, client satisfaction scores, and competency-based evaluation tools. Each of these different methods of evaluation will be discussed. The CSWE 2008 competencies integrated into student learning contracts and field assessments, surveys, quantitative research, and qualitative research are offered for social work programs' consideration.Assessing Student Performance in Field EducationField education has been widely recognized as a fundamental educational tool that allows for the integration of theoretical knowledge with real world practice in the professional field (Bogo et al., 2004; Fortune, McCarthy, & Abramson, 2001; Sherer & Peleg-Oren, 2005; Witte, 1966). Moreover, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has identified field education as its signature pedagogy. To elaborate, Shulman (2005) describes a profession's signature pedagogy as its characteristic form of teaching and learning. Examples of signature pedagogy include performing clinical rounds in medicine, and student teaching in teacher education. Through this pedagogical approach, three aspects of professional practice are integrated, including 1) thinking, e.g., employing professional knowledge, 2) performing, e.g., utilizing skills of a particular profession, and 3) acting with integrity, e.g., operationalizing of professional values and ethics. Field education is the central form of teaching and learning in which social work education socializes its students to perform the role of practitioner:In social work, the signature pedagogy is field education. The intent of field education is to connect the theoretical and conceptual contribution of the classroom with the practical world of the practice setting. It is a basic precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum--classroom and field--are of equal importance within the curriculum, and each contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice. Field education is systematically designed, supervised, coordinated, and evaluated based on criteria by which students demonstrate the achievement of program competencies. (CSWE, EP 2.3, 2008)During field education, students are expected to demonstrate the ten core competencies of the explicit curriculum set forth in the CSWE Educational Policy 2.0-2.1. 10(d). Given the central role of field within social work education, it is imperative to examine its effectiveness in preparing students to enter the social work profession. Research on this topic is fairly limited, especially when considering the importance of the topic.In a 1980 review of the literature, Eric Morrell asked four main questions which must be posed and answered in assessing student field work performance:1. What qualities and skills are needed in the qualifying social work student? 2. When should a student fail? 3. Who carries responsibility for the planning and assessment of fieldwork placements? 4. How do we find out what a student's practice performance actually is? (p. 432-434)While these questions are now over thirty years old, comprehensive answers to these questions are still in debate. This article will not address questions 1-3, but will focus on question 4: "How do we find out what a student's practice performance is in field education? " Perhaps more clearly stated, this paper will examine the question, "How do we effectively evaluate student performance in field education? …