SOWK12014 - Ethical Professional Practice

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit presents ethical theories and principles and their relationship to social work professional practice in human services. Students should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) code of ethics and explore ethical decision making in relation to different practice contexts. Students should also be able to analyse the role of personal and professional value systems and their place in various practice settings, and the legal and organisational context of social / welfare work. Students should be able to identify and engage appropriate use of self and self care strategies by students in the professional context as a component of devising an ethical professional framework for future practice. The students should be able to analyse the ethics of practice within different cultural contexts and devise appropriate strategies of intervention.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Successful completion of 48 credit points in any course.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Group Discussion 30%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Written Assessment 40%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 40.82% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Students found the unit resources and Moodle site easy to navigate and the unit content and assessments engaging. Students commented that the level of assessment feedback improved their understanding and application of key concepts and results in remaining assessments.
Recommendation
The unit Moodle site structure and assessment formats will be retained and resources updated accordingly.
Action Taken
The unit structure was retained, and resources were updated.
Source: Student evaluation and Unit Coordinator's observations.
Feedback
While students indicated they enjoyed the zoom sessions, there was not a strong student attendance throughout the term. The highest student attendance was at the Assessment Q & A zoom sessions. Learning activities were designed for weekly zoom sessions to improve understanding and application of the weekly study content. The unit coordinator varied weekly zoom times to accommodate students' differing availability. This attempt to accommodate student needs may have influenced a student indicating some confusion about the times of the sessions.
Recommendation
A list of weekly zoom sessions will be provided at the commencement of the term.
Action Taken
Weekly zoom sessions were scheduled at 11 am (AEST) on Tuesdays. One session was cancelled, and another was rescheduled to Thursday due to the unit coordinator needing to take sick leave.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
The amount of reading was overwhelming.
Recommendation
Reduce weekly readings and reiterate to students how to utilise study modules and prescribed and supplementary readings in completing assessment tasks.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
The Indigenous and Cross Cultural Issues study module needs to be introduced earlier in the term.
Recommendation
Social workers' ethical responsibilities to culturally safe and inclusive practice are integrated throughout the study modules, and key ethical concepts related to this specific study module are not introduced until later in the term. However, the first two study modules will incorporate a further emphasis on social workers' ethical responsibility to culturally safe and responsive practice.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Identify the major principles inherent within the AASW code of ethics
  2. Apply the code of ethics to professional practice contexts
  3. Critically analyse modernist and post modernist approaches to ethical dilemmas
  4. Analyse the ethical elements of cultural competence including working in Indigenous contexts and apply strategies to case study situations
  5. Analyse differing contexts for ethical practice and apply the ethical use of self and appropriate self care strategies within a range of these practice contexts
  6. Analyse your performance from feedback drawn from your involvement in learning contexts.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Group Discussion • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Communication • • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • • • •
5 - Team Work • • • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence • • • • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • • • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • • • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - Group Discussion • • • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •