Making the Most of Field Placement,
5th Edition

Helen Cleak, Jill Wilson

ISBN-13: 9780170457606
Copyright 2022 | Published
248 pages | List Price: USD $54.25

Learn how to get the most from your placements with this user-friendly text. The bestselling Making the Most of Field Placement offers a practice-based approach to teaching and learning during placement experiences. Written for both students and supervisors, it follows the stages of a placement from planning through to evaluation. The core practice issues and ideas discussed can be used for a wide range of fields including social work, welfare work, disability work, youth work, community work and other human services. This edition has been updated to reflect the 2020 Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards along with new chapters on working with vulnerable people and becoming a professional.

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Part 1 Pre-placement planning
1. Preparing for placement – student
2. Preparing for placement – supervisor

Part 2 Beginning placement
3. Getting started – student
4. Getting started – supervisor
5. Charting the course for placement – contracts and agreements

Part 3 Teaching and learning on placement
6. Critical reflection for teaching and learning
7. Developing good supervisory practices
8. Teaching and learning tools
9. Linking learning and practice in placement

Part 4 Methods and contexts of practice
10. Community work
11. Research and policy
12. Rural and international placements
13. Working with vulnerable adults

Part 5 Keeping on course
14. Challenging issues in supervision
15. Working with cultural and power differences
16. Ethical and legal issues

Part 6 Evaluating, assessing, and finishing placement
17. Assessment and evaluation – students and supervisors
18. Finishing well
19. Forging your transition from a student to a professional social worker
Appendix: Useful resources

  • Helen Cleak

    Dr Helen Cleak is Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Allied Health, Human Service and Sport, La Trobe University, and has been a Visiting Fellow at Trinity College, Republic of Ireland and Queens College, Northern Ireland. She has a strong practice and research background in field education and was the Director of Field Education and International placements for over 20 years. She is on the Editorial Board of Australian Social Work and is a member of the accreditation Panel of the AASW and a member of the Expert panel to review the ASWEAS guidelines on field education. She is an active researcher in field education with colleagues in Australia, Ireland and United Kingdom and collaborates with health practitioners to research aspects of domestic and family violence.

  • Jill Wilson

    Professor Jill Wilson is an Emeritus Professor of Social Work in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Queensland. Her research background is in aged care issues and disability. Currently she is the lead Investigator on an ARC grant exploring hospital social work responses to elder abuse. She has had extensive practical experience as a field educator and in teaching supervision and practice skills to students and field educators.

  • Updated to reflect the latest Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS)

  • NEW content including Chapter 13 'Working with vulnerable adults' and NEW Chapter 19 'Forging your transition from a student to a professional social worker', which addresses the final placement and preparing for the workplace

  • Expanded coverage explores the challenges of working remotely, away from an agency, as well as the impact of Covid-19, in parts 1 and 2

  • NEW 'Theory to practice' icon helps students identify connections between concepts and their placement experiences

  • It's now easier to navigate important content with NEW full-colour design

  • The order of parts and chapters follows the field placement experience from pre-placement right through to finishing and evaluation so that the text can be used as a guide while placement progresses. It addresses the range of critical learning issues that may emerge at each stage of field placement and suggests strategies to deal with these to improve the placement experience

  • Students apply their understanding and reflect on their own experiences by carrying out the exercises throughout each chapter. Exercises can be ‘For the student’, ‘For the supervisor’ and ‘For the student AND supervisor’

  • ‘Experience in the field’ boxes for students and supervisors use real practitioner stories to illustrate the application of theory and research in the field, as well as how to cope with the challenges students will face

  • Identify issues and explore strategies to respond to any challenging situations with the ‘Thinking about the issues’ boxes for students and supervisors

  • Readers prepare for field placement with examples of important forms and documents required for use in the field. These are also available to instructors online

  • Students can extend their reading by referring to the appendix listing reputable websites and key organisations

  • Instructor Website - Your #1 resource for your course. This tailored collection of teaching tools includes downloadable Learning agreements, forms and activity sheets. New to this edition are full colour artwork files Log in or request an account to access instructor resources at au.cengage.com/instructor/account for Australia or nz.cengage.com/instructor/account for New Zealand.

Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

Instructor Website for Cleak's Making the Most of Field Placement
9780170461207