Social work is an applied science and professional social work training has its value only when it is practiced to promote welfare of the people. Therefore filed work or practicum has been recognized as a very basic and vital component of social work ...
Social work is an applied science and professional social work training has its value only when it is practiced to promote welfare of the people. Therefore filed work or practicum has been recognized as a very basic and vital component of social work education and professional training.
The field work system as well aw the social work education program were directly brought in from the United States higher education system in the early fifties. The system has had some obvious adjustment difficulties because of the differences in social, cultural and economic factors. Social work by nature must be indigenous to be effective. In order to make social work education viable to Korean society and to train professionals responding appropriately to peoples' needs and wants, a Korean approach has to be sought.
As a first step in promoting social work education and the field work program more effective in the training of professionals, I have attempted to evaluate the field work program, and by locating problem areas I have sought to offer some suggestions toward innovation of the practicum system and its program. The problems identified from the study are: 1) the present field work system is not well coordinated and somewhat disorganized to the extent that concerned instructors do not have a mutual concensus in fieldwork core curriculum. 2) lack of long term field work placement contracts with students placement agencies tends to cause placement difficulties and extra work loads on the field work assistant. 3) the timing of the field work orientation program is not conductive to students making decisions on placement choice. 4) the field work process that offers opportunities to take client from the start seems to fail many undergraduate students. Also, the curriculum content of beginning field work is not much different from advanced field work II and III. 5) lack of communication among field work instructors constitutes piecemeal approach. 6) respective roles of field instructor and supervisor at the practice center need to be clarified and understood. 7) field work objectives are not clearly stated and evaluation of students tends to be overly subjective.
To help overcome some of the difficulties and to promote a more effective field work experience the following changes are suggested ; (1) To organize practicum as an integrated unit, a director of field instruction is needed. (2) program of field work I for beginning students should be centered around mainly visiting social welfare institutions, observations of professional work and participation in social treatment as co-workers. (3) field work II and III for undergraduates should be taken as a one year unit at the same practice center in order to experience the diagnosis, treatment and evaluation process of social work. (4) to develop supervisory skill, graduate level field work III should be designated for supervision field work. (5) field work instructors and the office of the field work director be consulted to materialize a field work manual (6) a long term field work placement contract should be sought and when 7 or more students are assigned to qualified supervisors at the agency, she or he be invited as a field work instructor (7) evaluation guideline is recommended as 70 points from the field and the remaining 30 to be from school instructor. (8) to compensate for help given by the field placement agencies, graduate students should be assigned for field work two days consecutively either at the beginning or at the end of week.