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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) and the Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA) codes 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 differing 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 - 2019

Term 2 - 2020 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2021 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2022 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2024 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 - 2021 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 4.7 (on a 5 point Likert scale), based on a 48.28% 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
The interactive case study assessment tasks facilitated students' reflective practice and the consideration of different perspectives necessary for ethical decision making.
Recommendation
The unit will continue to offer these assessment tasks.
Action Taken
The interactive assessment tasks were retained in 2021.
Source: Student evaluation
Feedback
Difficulties were encountered initially by some students in locating the group discussion assessment feedback and grades.
Recommendation
The unit coordinator will explore strategies to resolve this issue with the Moodle team and continue to provide instructions early and throughout the term.
Action Taken
Early instructions were provided to students about locating group discussion grades and feedback. This action appears to have resolved previous difficulties.
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
Nil.
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
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Identify the major principles inherent within the AASW or ACWA codes of ethics.
  2. Apply the codes 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 professional 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