4.4 Supervisors’ perception of student performance
4.4.1 Academic preparation
89 Most of the participants revealed that supervising students from different universities, all who have different expectations and requirements pose a challenge. A common theme that emerged was the demands and frustrations of having to accomplish all the field work requirements within a period of three months at one of the universities. In addition failure on the part of universities to maintain contact with and interact with the agency leaves many uncertainties for the agency and the supervisor. The negative impact of this was evident on not only the student but the supervisor and the client in terms of service delivery. Another huge challenge expressed by several of the participants was the lack of skills with which students entered the field, particularly basic counselling skills and report writing skills. As revealed by participant 11, “The lack of basic skills is consistent with all students I’ve supervised from the various universities around KZN”. This finding is reiterated by Lyter & Smith (2008) who, through extensive research on the aspect of implementing theoretical knowledge into practice skills, discovered that students were underprepared in several practice areas and therefore stated that, “there is a disconnect between the competencies and skills emphasized in the curriculum and those desired by the field agencies”.
Supervisors expressed repeatedly that students enter the field with minimal writing or counselling skills. In addition they experience difficulties in establishing rapport and settling into the agency routine. They cannot function independently and need to be literally shown what to do throughout their placement, leaving little room for the supervisor to attend to other responsibilities. Supervisors were of the opinion that competencies in terms of the practical component should be a part of the academic curriculum.
90 experience is that students come in with a lot of knowledge, a lot of theory and with the enthusiasm to get into the field”; and participant 7, “The university is doing a fantastic job because the student is able to rattle off the theory”.
Some participants benefited from students’ advanced technological skills which they found exciting and useful. However, the main concern expressed by the majority of the supervisors was students’ lack of practical preparedness to carry out tasks in the field. To elaborate further as shared by Participant 16, “preparation for the actual field practice does not come close to the theoretical preparation” and Participant 3:
“Universities should prepare students more for the realities and practical aspects of social work”.
Most supervisors believed that universities did not adequately prepare students for the realities of field work, that is, the theory taught at universities was not contextualized into practice resulting in students becoming overwhelmed when they entered the agency and discovered that it was not what they expected it to be. This sentiment was also expressed by Participant 3 who stated that:
“there is need for more practical preparation for the field, so you are not alarmed when you are in the field…often social work students come from a protected environment, and field work is often a rude awakening…students need to have a feel for the experience of field work.”
This quote highlights the gaps in equipping students with skills for the field. Hawkins (2007) highlights the importance of fully understanding the client and the client’s situation before applying theory to bring about changes. The students in this study were all level 4 students who within a few months would be employed at agencies. It seems that this was the students’ first exposure to the practice of social work, and was quite an overwhelming experience. In addition to having to comply with the university and SACSSP requirements in terms of the Exit Level Outcomes, within this short period at the agency, the student must also become accustomed to and comfortable with field work.
91 There is evidence that being well prepared for the field enhances student’s self-efficacy thus alleviating the stressors associated with field placement and working with intensive encounters with people, thus facilitating higher student satisfaction with field placement (Cohen & Gagin (2005), Corrigan, et al (1997) and Ewers et al (2002).
Furthermore, supervisors expressed that students did not research the agencies that they were placed at. To elaborate on this, Participant 15 stated that “many students who are placed with us
haven’t researched us and have no clue what we are all about and what we do”.
The lack of exposure to the various organizations and variety of services offered in the practice of social work results in students entering an agency with no idea as to the kind of work or specialization the agency undertakes. This often resulted in students’ shock and feelings of being overwhelmed and they eventually experienced difficulties in adjusting to the agency context.
Supervisors requested that students become familiar with the range of services and the extent of interventions at organizations before being placed with them. It was suggested repeatedly that students’ exposure to the field should commence much earlier in their training programme.
Earlier exposure to field work, extension of the university curriculum to include a variety of specialist services and interventions and a more varied experience in the field would certainly provide opportunities for the student to become accustomed to the various contexts of the practice of social work.
The majority of the supervisors expressed concerns regarding academic preparedness in terms of students’ writing skills and abilities. Despite having theoretical understanding of social work, the majority of the students lacked basic writing skills. Examples highlighted by participants were students’ inability to express themselves in writing, poor record keeping and the inability to write a simple letter of appointment. It is however noted that English is not the first language for the majority of the students and a major challenge would inevitably be that of writing skills. This often resulted in supervisors having to dictate letters, or as Participant 16 stated, she is forced to
“Write a three line letter in pencil and get the student to ink it in”. In addition to this Participant 11 stated that, “students do not write out verbatim reports like we used to, I cannot trust or rely on a precise format of a session”
92 On probing further it was discovered that some universities in the past had required students to write out their interviews verbatim, thus allowing the supervisor the opportunity to guide them based on their skills or lack of them. Although supervisors acknowledged that students were in field placement to learn, they were strongly of the opinion that the development of basic writing and counselling skills should have occurred at the university. There was however a huge gap.
The supervisors reported that the process of the interview could not be followed and as a result they experienced difficulties in guiding the student in the use of their skills etc. and “students inevitably get stuck”. One participant indicated that she did discuss the previous method of verbatim reporting with the university lecturer and was given a response as follows: “great if that could happen, but we recognize that that will never happen”.
In addition to the inadequate preparation regarding basic counselling and writing skills, many supervisors believed that students were inadequately prepared in terms of basic professional etiquette at the agencies. Regarding this matter, Participant 9 stated the following:
“…majority of the students need a lot of preparation as to expectations of the agency, like mindful of dress code, no revealing clothes, tight fitting, when working with elderly…”
Many participants reported on student’s inappropriate dress code. Whilst this is documented in the code of conduct and at some agencies discussed at the initial contracting stage or during the
orientation programme, it seems that students lack awareness of the inappropriateness of their dress for the type of work at agencies. Examples were cited where students insisted on wearing
high heeled shoes and elaborate clothing when going out to poor communities or wearing tight and revealing clothing when working with the elderly or at a faith based organization.