Part A

Assessment 1 30% Social Groupwork Program in Duos or Trios

Part A worth 20% - 1500 words Program Plan

Focus Statement:

You are required to form working partnerships with other students for this assessment task. The core reading for this assessment is Fatout, M. (1992) Models of Change in Social Group Work. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Chapter 1 referred to as the ‘mainstream model’ is provided in the additional reading list on Moodle.

This assessment item is informed by the mainstream model. Using the existing knowledge you have acquired to date, you are to develop session by session activities for your own social groupwork program. The relevance and need for such a program should be demonstrated through supporting academic literature.

As a social work student, you have participated in your own groupwork process in preparation for this submission. You are also required to reflect on your own groupwork experience in Part B.

Your role:

Imagine you are social work students sharing the same placement in a human service organisation.

Context:

Your field educator has asked you to research the needs of your community and develop a groupwork program that could be accessed by the services offered in the organisation. Your social groupwork program should demonstrate your knowledge of this model and the integration of evidence based sources to inform the content of the program. As students you will be expected to co-facilitate this program with your supervisor as the lead facilitator.

Product/Performance:

You have 1500 words to present your social groupwork program. It should be presented in A4 landscape with the following information or column headings conveying the complexity of information required to facilitate a social groupwork program.

· Purpose of session;

· Input/information to be delivered/rationale for input;

· Instructions for group activity/rationale for activity according to group dynamics;

· Social work literature informing responses to the social issue chosen;

· Method of evaluating client change (session by session and whole of program).

This is provided as a guide for headings, however you may incorporate additional topics

In keeping with the succinctness required for such practice plans within an agency context, brief statements, headings, and a dot point format is acceptable for your groupwork program. As above, you are encouraged to produce a matrix/table format showing sessions and their content/activities informed by social work literature, group dynamics, and the integration of any other relevant theory.

Dependent on the client group selected and the particular needs of your client group, the groupwork experience will generally be four to six sessions.

You will need to consult and gain approval from the unit co-coordinator before proceeding with your topic and research.

An example of a past student group submission is loaded to Moodle

For future practitioners’ ease of reference to the research informing your program, conventional academic referencing is required. You may consider using a preamble to the program submitted to contextualise and orient future workers to the approach you have taken and how it is informed.

This preamble may consider such issues as:

· The criteria that potential participants must meet in order to be suitable for the program to ensure the safety and success of clients as they work towards accomplishing their goals;

· A rationale for delivering the knowledge using the social group work method rather than other social work methods such as case management, family work, or community development;

· The aims and anticipated outcomes of client participation;

· Practical issues associated with the context chosen (assess an actual site in your local community: church hall/school/human service; organisation), set up, and delivery of group work programs and how these issues will be co-ordinated;

· The management of co-facilitation roles; and

· Cultural sensitivity.

Weighting: Part A 20%

Word Count: 1500 words. The word count is considered from the first word of the introduction to the last word of the conclusion. It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference list and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.

Part B

Part B worth 10% - Self Peer Assessment (SPA)

This assessment requires that you undertake a self assessment and a peer assessment of participation and contribution to the group learning assessment task based on the criteria below.

The link to the on-line survey is sent to your student email account. You will receive the survey one week after the submission of Assessment 1. The collation of average scores from this survey will form the basis of the 10% weighting and will be loaded to Moodle gradebook.

NB Unit Coordinators have access to each student's name and their scoring. However, you will not have access to the identity of group members or their individual scoring. You are not evaluating the accuracy of ideas or resources brought by individual members to the assessment, rather you are evaluating participation and contribution.

Assessment Criteria (SPA Online Survey) 10%

· Was dependable in attending group meetings (Likert Scale)

· Willingly accepted assigned tasks (Likert Scale)

· Contributed positively to group discussions (Likert Scale)

· Completed work on time or made alternative arrangements (Likert Scale)

· Helped others with their work when needed (Likert Scale)

· Did work accurately and completely (Likert Scale)

· Contributed their fair share of the work (Likert Scale)

· Worked well with other group members (Likert Scale)

· Overall was a valuable member of the team (Likert Scale)

· The group member listens to others (Likert Scale)

· Additional comments (Comment)

Assessment 2 30% Audio Visual Recording of Family Work Skills

Focus Statement:

Application of the necessary skills, knowledge and values for the facilitation of a session with at least two family members

Your Role:

Imagine you are a social work or human service student undertaking a placement in a human service organisation

Context:

Your field educator is now proposing that for more in-depth supervision to occur, with client consent, you will record a fifteen-minute excerpt of work undertaken for analysis and critique

Produce/Performance:

A fifteen-minute recording of a simulated family work session involving your professional response to at least 2 people imagining themselves to be a presenting family of the service is required for submission.

Your submission must not be edited, but show an uninterrupted, unedited 15 minute segment of family work practice.

For continuity of learning, students that have completed assessment tasks for SOWK12009 Casework and Casemanagement may continue with their client, engaging the most important family member to emerge in that work. Alternatively, all students are free to submit this assessment task with new clients, scenarios and social issues.

It is important to remember that there is no perfect interview or one single formula for demonstrating effective helping. You must engage reflectively with the concept of ‘use of self’ in your preparation for this exercise. This assessment invites you to begin demonstrating your style of social work practice. Each submission/approach will be as unique as your peers accompanying you in this unit.

In preparation for this submission you must undertake the following assessment with anyone offering to role play for you before proceeding to a recording:

• all people involved in this product are imagining and playing a part in a simulated learning activity
• all participants are at least 18 years of age
• the social issue negotiated should not be closely related to past, present or future events for the role player and you must establish this at the outset with the individual who agrees to assist you
• encourage your participants to draw on their experiences of/create composites of other people they know as opposed to themselves
• provide your participants with an opportunity to debrief or discuss the simulated experience after it has concluded including: what they thought and how they felt about the experience, breakthroughs in their own thinking about the character they played, unexpected emotions, what they would have said if they had more time, how the person who adopted the client role is different from the simulated learning part the played, what they might do to finish their connection with the person they played
• inform them of their right to contact the unit coordinator immediately if any distress results from their participation for appropriate support and actions to be put into place
• inform them that the University requires them to sign a form consenting to their involvement (to be provided at Moodle) which must be scanned and uploaded in Moodle

Key tips for successful completion:

• Approach your role play participants early in the term. Previous students have been able to complete their video recording after hours at residential school with students in their small learning group
• Always test run your recording equipment before attempting the full 20-minute product.
• The camera and audio must focus on you but is useful to have both participants in the frame
• If time permits, undertake several recordings so you have a choice about which to submit in the end.
• Even when working with people you know well provide your participant with only the essential information needed. The less information provided, the less anxious your volunteer is likely to be. Sometimes participants become anxious for you if they have too much information to recall. After providing them with the basic scenario give them permission to develop the role in any direction they wish. Give them permission to improvise and let them know that there are no right or wrong ways of creating the person. It’s your task to fit in with their narrative not theirs to fit in with you.
• In preparation for the critique (Assessment task # 3) – find a critical friend in the class and swap recordings asking for their honest feedback.

Keep in mind that the complexity of the topic selected is not being assessed; it is your response to the family’s presentation at the agency that is being assessed for feedback. In other words, it is not necessary for you to work with an emotionally provocative issue or an overly complex social situation in order to demonstrate your competency and confidence with the family work method. Emotional, cultural and physical safety for both you and your role players must always be considered in this style of experiential professional education

Format:

If you are adhering to social distancing, the audio-visual recording can be recorded using the video conferencing format of Zoom. All students have access to a student Zoom account. Zoom recordings should be saved and named with your full name and student number and attached to your cover page and submitted to Moodle.

Alternatively, if you are recording in person with your participants, you may upload your recording to a cloud drive or storage such as One Drive or Google Drive. All students have a One Drive account and therefore this is the preferring file sharing platform. The file link should be checked to ensure it is available for editing and viewing by anyone with this link. Please contact TASAC for any queries related to shared drive storage. The link to your audio-visual recording should be attached to your cover page and submitted to Moodle.

Documentation

A consent form must be signed by all participants and uploaded to Moodle. An assessment cover sheet must also be completed and attached to the audio-visual recording. Assessment cover sheets must include the submission link if uploaded to Moodle.

Submission

Upload an assessment cover sheet to Moodle with either a copy of your Zoom recorded audio visual or the link to the cloud storage or drive that you uploaded your audio-visual recording to.

Focus Statement

Submission of a formal academic analysis of assessment #2

Your Role:

Imagine you are a student on placement and your field educator has asked you to write a formal academic critique of your recorded family work practice

Produce/Performance

This critique requires the application and integration of the theories of family and family work practice presented in this unit

Overall, the focus of this submission is your ability to demonstrate your critique of family work skills ie a written analysis of your strengths and limitations against the guidance of the knowledge, skills and theory you have acquired over the course of your studies including that presented throughout term

Consider the following suggestions for the organisation of this critique:

• You are encouraged to develop hypotheses about the relationships within the family informed by the knowledge of family dynamics presented in this unit and at the compulsory residential school.
• Link your assessment of your interpersonal skills with the knowledge of family dynamics, roles and relationships presented in this unit and at the compulsory residential school.
• Provide evidence of reflective and reflexive practice, linking to your own personal values, beliefs, bias, considering what prompted your thinking, responses and reactions
• Demonstrate the language you would have preferred to use at points where you have identified limitations in your practice. Use direct quotes in your critique to rework or revise the language used in Assessment item # 2 that you think could be improved.
• Identify additional assessment information that needs to be gathered if you believe you have not acquired a full understanding of the issues facing the family system or sub-systems.
• Devote final sections to your assessment about interventions for change such as activities or aides you think would assist you in moving the family toward the action-phase of the change process.
• Suggest input or knowledge that you suspect the family needs in order to accomplish those changes.
• Select possible techniques drawn from published literature that fit well with social work approaches to intervention.
• Suggest how you intend to continue evaluating the changes that the family seeks.

Assess Due: Week 10 Friday

Return Due: Exam Week

Minimum Mark: Students must pass either Assessment 2 or 3 to pass the unit overall

Weighting 40%