Three Types of Placement Students:

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Three Types of Placement Students

• Which type do you belong?

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• Intellectual Learner
• Intuitive Learner
• Experiential Learners

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Intellectual Learner
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Behavioral characteristics of Intellectual Learner

• At the beginning of the field placement
  experience
• they tend to assume a great deal of initiative in
  learning.

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They feel secure...

• because they have read widely, analyzed their
  situation,
• and developed a frame of reference to work with
  professionals and clients.

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Strength

• They are stimulated by
• the theoretical content of academic courses and
• are successful in this area.

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Recordings

• Their early case recordings reflect interest in
  people,
• freedom to speculate about the meaning of
  behavior, and
• able to identify both tangible problems and
  problems that deal with feelings.

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Special Skills

• As the field experience progresses, they
  demonstrate a special skill in the diagnostic
  area.
• They are organized, logical, concise, and able to
  conceptualize.
• However, difficulties may arise when they must do
  more than provide tangible services.

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Frustration

• Since theoretical learning is so effortless for
  them,
• they become frustrated with the need to think
  through the interactions involved in the
  relationship process.
• Their levels of self-expectation are high, and
  they become easily discouraged by their lack of
  success in "doing."

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Difficulties

• In their early contacts with the client,
• they are able to identify obstacles.
• but difficult to move them from problem focus to
  client focus.
• They are overly prepared for interviews and are
  frustrated when flexibility is required.

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Warning

• As a result, they sometimes fail to grasp the
  importance of working at the pace of the client.
• The students' need to effect change quickly may
  overwhelm the client and
• result in termination or
• lack of any significant response.

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Problems

• They experience problems with
• field learning, and
• place many demands on field instructors.

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Causes of Problem

• Many of their problems stem from
• their strong desire to succeed, and
• their fear of being forced to act before they
  have sufficient knowledge based on course
  content.

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Threatening experience

• Consequently, when they are forced to focus on
• the emotional content of the helping
  relationship,
• their security is threatened.

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Reaction to insecurity

• by seeking a magic formula that provides clear
  and explicit instructions on
• how to help clients beyond tangible needs.

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Further Reactions

• are threatened by criticism and
• less free to expose themselves to risk,
• protect themselves by attempting to control
  supervision sessions.

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Further Reactions

• may focus on details about which
• they are knowledgeable, or
• attempt to engage in abstract reasoning.

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Difficult to change

• Making changes in their manner of relating to
  clients is difficult
• frequently, they can adapt superficially without
  really changing.

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Areas of Concern

• Self-awareness, consequently, is much more
  painful for these students.
• They struggle hard and long to hold onto old
  patterns of learning and performing,
• frequently fearing that
• they will lose status in the intellectual area
  and will regress rather than develop.

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Intuitive Learner
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Behavioral characteristics of Intuitive Learner

• At the beginning of their placement, they meet
  with few major problems.
• They are practical, extremely sensitive, and
• have a high degree of natural talent and
  established security in relating to people.

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The kind of person

• Basically giving persons,
• they are enthusiastic about beginning with their
  cases, and
• keenly motivated to understand how the agency can
  be utilized for the benefit of clients.

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Performing well in the early stage

• Utilizing tangible services reinforces feelings
  of adequacy and
• encourages them to exhibit more initiative in
  discovering additional resources.
• They work steadily and diligently and assume
  considerable responsibility for managing their
  work load.

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Weakness

• At times, they move ahead too quickly and fail to
  realize the need to explore existing agency
  policies and procedures.
• This failure is not usually based on an undue
  amount of conflict with authority but
• rather on their desire to follow their feeling
  instincts.

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Trying to avoid

• tend to avoid an analytical, orderly approach to
  problem solving and
• spend a disproportionate amount of time on
  field-practice activities,
• often to the detriment of classroom demands for
  acquiring a broad base of theoretical knowledge.

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Enthusiastic about social work theory

• Early in their field-placement experience, they
  are
• quite enthusiastic about social work theory
• because they find it so compatible with their
  natural way of responding to others.

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Courses they like

• "Human Behavior in the Social Environment" and
  other theoretical courses are viewed as
  interesting,
• but not especially useful except for its
  contribution to their general fund of knowledge.

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Questions the value of knowledge

• Because they are so actively involved with the
  current functioning of clients,
• they question the emphasis on acquiring knowledge
  and understanding the dynamics of behavior.

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Turning point

• When they begin to appreciate the benefits of an
  orderly, structured approach to problem-solving,
• they begin to integrate theoretical content,
• improve their conceptual ability, and consciously
  use self in the helping process.

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Recordings

• Early recordings reveal special skills in
• individualizing clients,
• recognizing strengths, and, to a lesser degree,
  weaknesses.

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Special Skills

• able to identify client needs and focus on
  practical problems
• pay less attention to viewing the entire case
  situation.
• Feeling responses toward clients are easily
  available to them, readily heard, and usually
  appropriate.

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Frustration

• As greater conceptualization is demanded from
  them,
• their style becomes more stilted and recordings
  briefer.
• Sometimes especially resistant to integrating and
  using new knowledge.
• Increasing anxiety push them toward
  self-examination in the helping process.

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Identification with the profession

• Initially, field instructors are quite impressed
  by their ability to verbalize his/her
  identification with the profession.
• Students are amazed to find a profession in which
  they feel so comfortable, curious, and eager to
  learn.

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Use of Supervision

• They feel free to question, and
• are eager to engage the instructor in interesting
  discussions about the profession.
• However, when discussions are limited to helping
  students see concepts and understand principles
  in social work, they often resist.

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Fear

• They know they are successful with clients and
  initially feel defensive and fearful that they
  will lose their intuitive skill in helping
  people.
• Rather than becoming dependent on field
  instruction, they go through a phase in which
  they operate quite independently and often
  experience difficulty turning recordings in on
  time.

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Area of Concern

• Delay continues until they gain confidence in
  themselves as learners.
• After they realize that integrating theoretical
  content with practical experience is not a major
  problem,
• they begin asking for and using instructional
  help.

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Experiential Learner
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• Behavioral characteristics of Experiential Learner

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At the beginning of their placement,

• They are sometimes described as "late bloomers"
  because they start slow and experience problems.
• They seem unable to tap previously learned
  resources as easily as other types of learners
  do, and
• may appear to operate in a vacuum.

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Presenting Problems

• Their tolerance for frustration is low and
• their self-confidence weak,
• especially in young, beginning students who
  experience additional problems with regard to
  achieving independence and
• who lack related work experience or have limited
  life experiences.

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Difficulties

• Unlike the intuitive learners who cling to old
  ways of doing things at the beginning,
• they are frequently unable to use past life and
  work experiences,
• even when field instructors are active and
  supportive.

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Difficulties

• Often regress at the beginning of the second
  field placement, and
• act as though they had learned little from their
  first field experience.

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During the first few days of work

• They are confused about basic instructions.
• Their ability to comprehend or their intellectual
  endowment may be questioned.

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What they need

• They may even be immobilized during the early
  weeks of field placement.
• In effect, these students are saying,
• "I must do before I understand."

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Mixed results

• As their anxieties increase, they become
  self-focused, which in turn produces mixed
  results.
• They attempt to rationalize their lack of
  progress or lack of response from clients
• on the other hand, they begin early on to deal
  with self-awareness.

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Weaknesses

• They are overly dependent and
• need approval and recognition,
• they feel an urgency to obtain positive signs
  that
• they really can perform and
• place demands on the field instructor's time.

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Similarity

• Like intellectual learners,
• they look for a magical formula, although they
  are more attuned to feelings and
• are more flexible in their response to structure.

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Problems

• They are similar to those of the intuitive
  learner with regard to conceptualization,
• but their problem-solving approach is
• far less creative than that of the intuitive
  learner.

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Strengths

• Because they develop self-awareness early,
• they recognize their need to learn.

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Further difficulties

• They find it difficult to accept the fact that
• they are muddling through and
• may not produce the same quantity of work
• as do many other students.

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Further difficulties

• Even after these students begin to work through
  some of their problems,
• they continue to demonstrate lack of originality
  in approach and planning and
• difficulty in conceptualizing.

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The End