The biggest challenge with the first year placement unit is to prepare students to take an active role whilst on placement when there is only a relatively short preparation period. Our priorities in preparing students are To encourage them to value their placement as a learning experience To help them examine their fears about going on placement To provide opportunities to discuss how some of the more common 'difficult situations' might be handled To give them guidance about learning tasks and skills which they should practice whilst on placement To give them opportunities to practice some of the basic skills in the classroom setting To give them opportunities to identify strategies which they might using which would assist their learning To encourage peer support networks To help students to identify existing skills which they already have which may be useful to them in practicing and developing further skills. The 'lecture' has different formats but may include structured warm up games to help student get to know each other, short inputs followed by structured exercises in small groups, individual quizzes, group discussions or activities or group work on problem solving followed by a plenary session to draw ideas together. Towards the end of the semester guest speakers from different types of agency are invited to discuss the type of work which their agency does. The 'lecture' is followed by workshops and tutorials in smaller groups where the tutor can take a more active role with the group.
Readings are short and offer opportunities to follow up on ideas which have been presented in class.
The content of the rest of the semester is concerned with examining issues of stereotyping, developing relationships with young people, identifying and maintaining boundaries in appropriate professional conduct, understanding the role of the government bodies in the youth field, understanding the role of non-government bodies in the youth field. At the end of the semester, we employed an independent researcher to evaluate the responses of students and agency supervisors to the portfolio assessment process. The findings from the surveys and interviews are summarised below. The student questionnaire investigated the general question of how well they felt that the unit had prepared them for their placement experience and then specifically, how they felt about portfolio assessment. The follow up survey took place about six weeks after the initial survey and after the students had received feedback on their portfolios.