Title: An Integrative Model for Developing Social Work Students Communication Skills with Children and Youn
1An Integrative Model for Developing Social Work
Students Communication Skills with Children and
Young People
- Michelle Lefevre
- University of Sussex
2The Background
- Knowledge Review completed for Scie examining
what was known about the effectiveness of the
qualifying social work curriculum regarding the
teaching and assessment of communication skills
with children and young people (Luckock, Lefevre
Orr et al, 2006).
3KR Research QuestionsWhat is known about....
- the way communication skills with CYP are thought
about and applied in social work practice, and
about the effectiveness of this aspect of
practice? (i.e. what should be taught) - the way social work educators think about, teach
and assess communication skills with CYP and
about the effectiveness of this aspect of
qualifying social work education? (i.e. how it
should be taught) - the way educators in allied professions think
about, teach and assess communication skills with
CYP? (i.e. what can we learn from others) -
4Structure of the KR
- systematic research review in two parts
- review of evidence re. effective communication
skills in social work practice with CYP (218
papers, 123 empirical). - review of evidence re. effective teaching and
assessment of these skills with CYP (52 papers,
31 empirical). - practice survey in two parts
- primary survey of SW programmes of teaching and
assessing skills with CYP (opportunistic sampling
of 73 HEIs offering 63 UG and 31 PG programmes
no data from NI) - secondary survey of allied professional education
5Problems in defining communication skills
- Simplistic definition
- Should it be just micro-skills and performative
techniques? - Communication an implicit and/or contested
concept so no coherent body of research relating
to CSSW with CYP. - More complex definition
- Our advisory group defined skill as including
personal capacity/capability and ethical
commitment by students (ways of being) as well as
the exercise of acquired techniques and
approaches (doing). - This had implications for material reviewed
6Key findings of the review of SW practice
- Significant factors may inhibit communication
between SW and CYP - These may stem from issues to do with the SW, CYP
or the context - and dialectical relationships
between these, e.g. - Impact of issues of race, gender, sexuality etc.
- Childs limited vocab or conceptual understanding
- SWs inexperience or clumsiness with children
and/or limited knowledge of such factors - The SW role and task, how this makes the child
feel and the demands of timescales etc. - How the SW works to mediate this is crucial, in
particular how they see CYP, the emphasis they
put on maximising CYP participation and how they
make the child feel safe
7To mediate these performative techniques and
micro-skills are needed in.
- Giving information to CYP
- Consulting ? inclusion, participation
- Keeping CYP informed (verbal/written)
- Getting information from CYP
- Listening - to both direct indirect
communication - Interviewing
- Child-centred communication
- Play, symbolic, creative, non-verbal and
expressive techniques - Going at the childs pace, age, stage
- Use of appropriate tools (e.g. ecomaps, rating
scales, assessment schedules, life-story books)
8 But skilled communication is not just a matter
of technical or micro-skills. It also requires
underpinning
- Knowledge and understanding
- E.g. child development, impact of age, stage,
inheritance, experience, context, methods/models,
role and task, social actor perspective - Emotional and personal capacity for
- Warmth, humour, playfulness, forming
relationships and working with feelings, - Values and ethical commitments to
- AOP, attending to childrens rights as well as
needs, confidentiality, child-centredness,
participation - See Taxonomy handout
9These suggest domains of Being and Knowing which
underpin effective Doing for effective
communication with CYP in SW practice
Being
Knowing Doing
10Some questions.
- Would you agree that such elements constitute
effective communication? - What is missed out?
- How might an effective curriculum incorporate
such elements? - Can they be taught in a discrete way or do they
need a whole programme approach? - What is the role of practice learning?
11Findings of the Practice Survey
- No coherent model has yet emerged.
- Teaching and assessment was embedded in other
modules focusing on either generic communication
skills or on SW practice. - The generic structure meant no programme could
guarantee that a student would have the chance to
practice and be assessed on direct communication
with children despite the increase in practice
learning days, even if in a childrens services
setting not written into contracts or programme
specs. - So both teaching and assessment episodic and
fortuitous
12No consistency re. pedagogic methods
- Some aim for the learning of specific skills in
the latter part of programmes to be built upon a
foundation of core skills learned earlier - Direct teaching or instruction, underpinned or
supported by interactive experiential methods,
is the most common approach, with a philosophy of
either - Skill acquisition - taking a task-centred
approach to acquiring technical or micro-skills
(doing). - A capability-building approach (most popular) -
concentrating on the personal capacity of the
student (being) underpinning the performance of
any specified skill - Children involved opportunistically rather than
strategically. No clear evidence on the
effectiveness of their involvement.
13Findings from Research Review of SW Education
- A lack of evidence re. teaching and assessment
methods. But we could identify contrasting
perspectives on what counts as capability and
skill and some indications of how each might be
best taught - Studies focus on the enhancement of personal
capability (values and emotional capacity) as
well as the acquisition of performative skill
14Acquiring technical skills
- interactive/experiential methods reported,
especially role play - systematic social skills training in simulated
scenarios can facilitate understanding of core
(counselling) skills but follow-up is needed to
embed learning, especially through critical
self-reflection during training and professional
supervision of personal experience in
practice
15Developing personal capability - 2 approaches
informed by 1 of 2 contrasting perspectives about
the communicative task in SW with children and
young people and about the nature of childhood
- a psychosocial stance linked with developmental
accounts and a therapeutic/reparative aspiration
in sw practice - SW communication based in containment
concerned with the emotional and developmental
underpinning of a communicative and reflective
self-capacity. - Taught e.g. through child observation
- an empowerment stance linked to human rights
approaches and an emphasis on participation and
citizenship - preparing students as active participants
learning to exemplify empowerment, models
anti-oppressive practice. - E.g. Problem-based groupwork
16In both approaches.
- A continuing commitment to modelling as the
context for learning - Critical reflection universally valued and
experiential methods generally favoured - But no agreement on exactly what kind of
capability and skill should be modelled, learnt
and reflected upon - And little evidence about how learning is
transferred into practice
17Wider implications of the KR
- KR exposed social work education to criticism no
guarantee students were sufficiently prepared for
this aspect of practice, nor assessed on it. - Questions about genericism vs specialism and
basic vs advanced skills (Luckock, Lefevre
Tanner, 2006) - Clearer about what should be in curriculum
- Less evidence about pedagogical strategies
- But indications of possible approaches
- These imply a whole programme approach is needed
(Lefevre et al forthcoming)
18Four questions for today
- Does this ring any bells for you?
- Which teaching/assessment methods are used on
your programme? - Are they effective?
- What would be your suggestions for a 'fit for
purpose' curriculum (bearing in mind workforce
developments in children's services)?
19The Sussex MA approach
- All students must be assessed on communication
with a child at least once in placement - Human Development and Social Relationships
teaching in 1st year - Observation exercise (usually child) in 2nd year
- Modelling of empowerment, containment, and
relationship-based approaches - Module on Theory, Methods and Values in Practice
in both years - Values, self-reflection, general counselling
skills then focused sessions on communication
with CYP
20Focused sessions on communication with children
- Combination of didactic and experiential
- Presentation of core conditions and skills
- Reflecting on what was learned in professional
experience, personal values and approaches (e.g.
boundaries, forming relationships with children)
and personal experiences e.g. of play - Role playing being a normative child and a child
service user - Case study
21Evaluation of Sussex Programme
- Evaluating student subjective views plus
knowledge about how to plan work taking into
account these core conditions and skills using
vignette tool - Through Outcomes in Social Work Education and
SWAP dissemination project - Keen to get others to join
- M.Lefevre_at_sussex.ac.uk
22Post-hoc evaluation
- Students did become more confident in
communicating with children by the end of the
programme and showed increased knowledge of core
conditions and skills - Both programme and non-programme related elements
contributed - Highest importance to students focused
communication skills teaching plus practice
learning (programme) - Having personal and pre-course professional
experience with children also felt very
important. - All pedagogical methods used felt to have some
value range of strategies needed but
experiential methods particularly highlighted - No association shown between personal
characteristics of respondents (e.g.age,
race/ethnicity) and how much knowledge they were
able to demonstrate in relation to the vignette
but levels of personal and professional
experience did - Prospective evaluation now under way
23- Lefevre, M. Luckock, B. (2007) Teaching,
learning and assessing communication skills with
children and young people in social work
education. Dissemination project.
http//www.swap.ac.uk/projects/projects06_MLBL.asp
- Luckock, B., Lefevre, M Tanner, K (forthcoming)
Developing Social Work Students Communication
skills with Children and Young People a model
for the qualifying level curriculum - Luckock, B., Lefevre, M. Orr, D., Tanner, K.,
Jones, M Marchant, R. (2006) Knowledge Review
Teaching Learning and Assessing Communication
Skills with Children in Social Work Education.
Social Care Institute for Excellence, London. - Luckock, B., Lefevre, M Tanner, K (2006)
Teaching and learning communication with children
and young people developing the qualifying
social work curriculum in a changing policy
context. Child and Family Social Work, 12 (2),
192-201.
24Acknowledgements
- This workshop has developed from the findings of
a Knowledge Review commissioned and funded by the
Social Care Institute for Excellence but the
ideas are those of the authors alone.