Assessment 2: Documenting your Social Work Statement and Professional Development Plan 

Word limit/weighting: 1700 words/ 45% ) I need a good mark on this assignment so I can guarantee pass)

Task: Suppose that you are applying for a position as a graduate social worker/community worker.

Aim of this task: Synthesise learning and prepare for practice, either in field education or employment

Background steps

- Go to Seek.Com or LinkedIn and select a position that you are applying for (Suggestion: make it in the area in which you have done a placement so that you can rely on your field knowledge). 
- Access the following documents:

- Position Description/Job and Person Specifications, which should have a brief statement about the organisational context, and the sort of work expected in the role. 
- The Selection Criteria which will tell you what the selection will be based on. 
- These will give you an idea of the context and role. Insert these at the head of your paper (they are outside the word limit).

- After an initial telephone interview, you have been asked to submit a piece of written work for the next stage of the selection process. (These are the creative bits of the task). 

Assessment tasks

The request is this:

Please supply a statement of your understanding of social work in this role. It should include answers to these questions and rely on your own words built on the academic literature, properly referenced. Task: Suppose that you are applying for a position as a graduate social worker/community worker.

QuestionTipsWhat is the mission of social work?Note that you need to write in your own words, using referencesWhat is your mission as a social worker?Be mindful of the application/organisation but this is an opportunity for you to think about yourself as a social worker…own it!What does professional integrity mean to you?You may or may not declare your own philosophical position eg derived from you faith/spirituality/politics in a job search process …it may be applicable depending on the organisation…your call here but you can definitely makes statements that are consistent with wider social work thinking and valuesHow will you deal with ethical complexity in this role?Remember to draw on AASW Code of Ethics (2020), check whether the organisation has a public Code of Practice; refer to the relevant legislation in this field; also draw on the resources from this and all your topicsWhat are your plans for professional growth and development, especially in relation to social work judgment and decision-making and ethical practice?Refer to what you have learned in this topic across your degree– what did you learn about yourself and what you need to develop further?Use the Professional Development Plan Template from the AASW (link below)How will you sustain yourself in this role? Resources on their way!They will be released through Collaborate 22/05/22

Link to learning opportunities: This assessment links to Module #2: Reason and Resources in which we examine resources and start building a synthesis across the MSW. 

The task aims to assist you to:

Start building a philosophical and conceptual framework as part of your journey towards mature practice and integrity with a focus on yourself as an ethical, knowledgeable and skillful decision-maker in social work 

- Reflect on and generalise from your life and learning experiences
- Prepare for employment as a graduate social worker

Additional tips to assist with completing this task: (analysis and synthesis)

Apply concept or mind mapping

- What is the core question I am asking here?
- How do I now link it to other questions?
- I think this is a question about social work effectiveness, so
- E.g. What do I need to be and to have in order to be an effective social worker? 

Build dynamic links, not simply linear arguments… use hierarchies e.g. from general to specific 

http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryCmaps/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.htm

Revisit your resources

Ask: Now that I have taken my thinking deeper – from reporting to analysing and organising is there anything else I need here to build relevance, accuracy, precision, clarity, depth, and breadth into my argument?

Arrive at a tentative conclusion

Writing up is also a thinking process based on ongoing judgment, seeing a point of view in a new light, evaluating our argument… an early/evolving draft helps you discipline and direct your thinking. Distil this into a simple proposition…maybe 3 sentences. This forms the top of your argument pyramid. This is a way of moving from a plan to research and investigate to presenting a convincing statement. It is the point at which you switch to persuasion. Note that we are developing a document to present to a prospective employer, not a conventional academic essay. 

One model is Barbra Minto’s The Pyramid Principle (2009)

The main components of pyramid theory:

- Start with ‘the answer’
- Ideas at any level must always be summaries of the ideas grouped below them
- Ideas in each group must always be the same kind of information
- Ideas in each group must be logically ordered

Work on 2nd and final drafts, including revisiting the answer statements 

Pay attention to the flow of the argument, to logic and the connections between thoughts.

Have I over relied on ‘the authorities’? Have I inserted my own personal, unsubstantiated opinions here? Does my conclusion hold up now? Do I need to revise, refine, make more explicit, clear and direct? (this should ideally be a succinct statement about how you describe yourself as a social worker) 

Ensure rigorous academic integrity When in doubt cite it!

Academic integrity governs the way in which you research and write while at University. It is founded on the principles of respect for knowledge, truth, scholarship and acting with honesty. These principles and values are the foundation of academia. http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/tutorials/infoskills/glossary.html

To get more depth and understanding about the application of the principles of academic integrity and to see where you might unintentionally breach accepted practice, use FLO – 

Professional Development Plan: Self-Assess, noting and building on feedback

This is an ongoing activity that is about being able to view your own work critically, looking for clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and logicalness. It is also about being able to build on the feedback/ feedforward you receive.

This forms the basis for your Professional Development Plan which must address these questions, answered within a table, based on the template proposed by the AASW: See 

https://www.aasw.asn.au/professional-development/creating-a-cpd-plan

(Note that it asks for your membership number, insert if you are a member, otherwise leave blank.) You may add other cells if you wish.  Make it relevant to the position for which yu are applying. 

CONCLUSION: CRITICAL, REFLECTIVE, REFLEXIVE, ETHICAL THINKING SOCIAL WORKERS

Remember critical thinking is not about whinging and complaining or trotting out your favourite biases and opinions about the government, people, the world and everything! And then finding a few references to back you up. It is primarily about learning about yourself – personally and professionally. It is about gaining insight, knowledge, and skills that will contribute to you becoming a confident, compassionate professional social worker, making sound judgements and defensible decisions in collaboration with your colleagues and clients within the context of a human service underpinned by law and driven by policies. 

MODULE#2: REASON & RESOURCES

Teaching Week 729/04/22What resources are available to guide our thinking in messy situations? Reread AASW Code of Ethics 2020Teaching Week 806/05/22How do we develop phronesis? What is the place of being reasonable and values explicit?Read/watch: The Ethics CentreEthics Explainer: Consciencehttps://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-conscience/Teaching Week 913/05/22Which practice approaches will ensure that our professional judgement is knowledge based, theoretically sound, and ethically rigorous?Watch: Uni. Of Buffalo Social WorkEthical Dilemmas in Contemporary Social Work: trends and Challengeshttps://www.insocialwork.org/episode.asp?ep=24Teaching Week 1020/05/22What skills will ensure that our professional judgement is knowledge based, theoretically sound, and ethically rigorous?Read: International Federation of Social WorkersEthical Decision-making in the face of COVID-19https://www.ifsw.org/ethical-decision-making-in-the-face-of-covid-19/Teaching Week 11 27/05/22How do we connect our learning to practice? How do we sustain ourselves?The Imposter Syndrome within then Social Work Profession: Watch: Uni of Buffalo Social Work: Recognizing your true potential https://www.insocialwork.org/episode.asp?ep=237Your assessment task #2 is almost dueFrom 4-5 25/03/22 we will discuss assessment (recorded on Collaborate)Teaching Week 12 03/06/22How do we develop moral courage? How does this relate professional and personal growth?Read/watch: The Ethics CentreCourage isn’t about facing our fears; it’s about facing ourselveshttps://ethics.org.au/courage-isnt-about-facing-our-fears-its-about-facing-ourselves/ Teaching Week 13 10/06/22How do we see the golden thread through all this?This session will be pre-corded and uploaded on or before 27 May 2022 to assist with your assessment task. An announcement will be made when it is available. Your assessment task is due

Assessment 2: Documenting your Social Work Statement and Professional Development Plan 

Due: 08 June 2022

Word limit/weighting: 1700 words/ 45%

A note about this rubric: It does not address professional skills/capabilities (e.g.  such as you might find n SW skills topic; or in engineering) …it provides guidance about what we look for as evidence of following instructions and displaying high level critical thinking. It does not tell you how to do the task, those instructions are in Slow Thinking, the Assessment Hub and canvassed by students in the Discussion Forum. You can most effectively use it by applying it to your own work, preferably between the first and final drafts so that you can identify ares that require strengthening in your work.

Marking criteria Guidance for assessmentHigh Distinction85%+Distinction75%-84%Credit65%-74%Pass50%-64%Fail
A note about this rubric: It does not address professional skills/capabilities (e.g.  such as you might find n SW skills topic; or in engineering) …it provides guidance about what we look for as evidence of following instructions and displaying high level critical thinking. It does not tell you how to do the task, those instructions are in Slow Thinking, the Assessment Hub and canvassed by students in the Discussion Forum. You can most effectively use it by applying it to your own work, preferably between the first and final drafts so that you can identify ares that require strengthening in your work.

Marking criteria Guidance for assessmentHigh Distinction85%+Distinction75%-84%Credit65%-74%Pass50%-64%Fail
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