MA-level Social Work CPD (continuing professional development) modules

Who is this module for?

Social workers who have completed their Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE).

How will it support my development?

This module is designed to support participants moving from the ASYE into early professional career roles. The portfolio you have produced during your ASYE will provide a basis for agreeing on a learning plan with your tutor for your early professional development. You will then focus on your practice in increasingly complex and challenging situations and the module seeks to support you regarding your professional decision-making and confidence.

What will I learn?

• How do novices develop their expertise?
• How can continue to develop professionally following the ASYE?
• Reflective practice models to support social workers emotionally and in their critical thinking and professional decision-making.
• The role of employer endorsement and National Assessment and Accreditation System.

When will it run?

There will be three cohorts (4 days each) starting in October 2019, March 2020 and April 2020.

How will I be assessed?

• Direct observation of practice – Record of observation of practice by an appropriate assessor.
• Career plan – Written record endorsed by line manager.
• Critical reflection – Active participation in and presentation to reflective practice session. 
• Critical practice review – A written review of own practice.

Who is this module for:

The module is designed for practitioners who do not yet meet the requirements of the Practice Education Professional Standards at stage 1. The module provides professional practitioners with the tools to support learning for professional practice in the workplace.

How will it support my development?

Candidates will be helped to consider and apply in practice the professional values required in enabling the learning of others through the integration of the relevant professional codes of practice or ethical principles; respecting the uniqueness and diversity of learners; and assessing in a manner that does not stigmatise, disadvantage or unjustifiably discriminate against any learner.

A required element of the module is that the candidate is providing work based learning and assessment for a recognised professional award to a social work or other social care or human services professional student or member of staff, including social workers undertaking a newly qualified social worker programme.

Candidates will work towards completing a portfolio demonstrating how they have met the Practice Education Professional Standards at stage 1. This will involve demonstrating the following:

• organising opportunities for the demonstration of assessed competence in practice;
• enabling learning and professional development in practice; and
• managing the assessment of learners in practice

Who is this module for?

This module is for candidates who have completed the Enabling the Learning of Others module (or equivalent) and building on this module, will enhance their learning and competence in practice education.

What will I learn?

Further teaching on key principles of theoretical frameworks relating to and relevant research about experiential and adult learning and practice assessment will be offered. Reflection on the use of service user feedback in contributing to the assessment of the student’s practice will be an important component of this module. Teaching on making professional decisions on readiness to practice is also included.

How will this support my development

A required element of the module is that the candidate is providing work based learning and the final assessment for a recognised professional award to a social work or other social care or human services professional student or member of staff.

Candidates will work towards completing a portfolio demonstrating how they have met the Practice Education Professional Standards at stage 2. This will involve demonstrating:

• organising opportunities for the demonstration of assessed competence in practice;
• enabling learning and professional development in practice; and
• managing the assessment of learners in practice
• effective continuing performance as a practice educator

When will it run?

There will be 3 cohorts of this module. The dates are as follows:

Cohort 1- Fridays from 10:00 – 16:30 on 11 October, 18 October, 15 November and 22 November 2019

Cohort 2 – Fridays from 10:00 – 16:30 on 22 November, 29 November, 6 December and 13 December 2019

Cohort 3 – Fridays from 10:00 – 16:30 on 28 February, 6 March, 13 March and 20 March 2020

Please note this module will not be running during 2019-2020. For more information please contact CPD Convenor Sharon Jennings (s.jennings@gold.ac.uk)

Who is this module for?

This module is for any social worker who as part of their role is involved in or responsible for learning and development activities for teams and groups, such as Practice Educators, Team Leaders, Advanced Practitioners, Workforce Development staff, Teaching Consultants, ASYE Assessors, Coaches, Mentors or Principal Social Workers. You should be familiar with principles of adult learning introduced in the module ‘Assessing and Teaching the Adult Professional Learner’.

How will it support my development?

In this module you will develop your understanding of how to design and evaluate learning and professional development opportunities for teams and groups. These learning opportunities may be designed for student social workers, service users and carers, foster parents, qualified staff or volunteers. A wide range of learning activities can be planned and evaluated. The learning on evaluation and research methods will be transferrable to the evaluation of practice in general.

What will I learn?

• Alignment of learning outcomes, learning methods and evaluation of intended and unintended learning outcomes.
• Frameworks and methods for designing and evaluating interventions designed to support learning.
• Ethical issues, including service user, carer and learner

When will it run?

• Day 1: Friday, 7 September 2018 – 10:00-16:30
• Day 2: Friday, 14 September 2018 – 10:00-16:30
• Day 3: Friday, 21 September 2018 – 10:00-16:30
• Day 4: Friday, 28 September 2018 – 10:00-16:30

How will I be assessed?

• Design and evaluation for a learning opportunity – Plan to outline intended learning outcomes and activates, teaching methods and evaluation plan on which you will receive formative feedback.
• Design and evaluation proposal for a learning or development activity – Final proposal in the form of an essay.

Please note this module will not be running during 2019-2020. For more information please contact CPD Convenor Sharon Jennings (s.jennings@gold.ac.uk)

Who is this module for?

This module aims to support participants in facilitating and evaluating learning opportunities designed in the module 'Designing Learning Opportunities for Teams and Groups'. It is for any social worker who is involved or responsible for learning and development activities for teams and groups, such as Practice Educators, Team Leaders, Advanced Practitioners, Workforce Development staff, Teaching Consultants, ASYE Assessors, Coaches, Mentors or Principal Social Workers.

How will it support my development?

In this module you will be supported to develop your skills to facilitate learning in teams and groups. Project presentation and discussion sessions will promote reflective dialogue between participants and the lecturer and facilitate linking of theory, research, values and practice. You will be able to review the design and evaluation plan for the learning opportunity and provide and receive peer feedback. Ethical, data collection and analysis issues are examined, and participants are supported in their analysis of the emerging data. Participants will observe each other’s practice and provide written feedback.

What will I learn?

• How to critically reflect on practice, knowledge and values in relation to learning design, evaluation of outcomes and professional development as an educator.
• Facilitation skills for working with groups and teams.
• Working with diversity, promoting equality and inclusion of experts by experience.
• How to write a report on a learning intervention and how to present data, discussions and conclusions of an evaluation.

When will it run?

• Day 1: Friday, 5 October 2018 – 10:00-16:30
• Day 2: Friday, 12 October 2018 – 10:00-16:30
• Day 3: Thursday, 18 October 2018 – 10:00-16:30
• Day 4: Friday 26 October 2018 – 10:00-16:30

How will I be assessed?

• Peer Observation Report – You will observe and be observed in your practice by another participant and provide and receive formative written feedback.
• Evaluation Report – You will report on the learning intervention and its evaluation.

Who is this module for?

This module is for those who are undertaking practice supervisor and practice development education roles, including ASYE mentors and assessors, team leaders, senior practitioners, advanced practitioners and those responsible for quality assurance of professional standards and practice.

How will it support my development?

The module introduces key principles of good practice in supervision, coaching and mentoring and practice assessment. It is aligned to KSS Practice Supervisor and PCF domain of Professional Leadership at the experienced to advanced level. You will be supported to reflect critically on your practice and develop your interpersonal skills. The role and the importance of actively seeking service user and carer feedback, of evidence-informed decisions and consideration of ethical principles in the assessment of practice are explored. In this module candidates will consider how reflective approaches can be promoted through their work with individual learners and staff members.

What will I learn?

• Key principles of good practice in supervision, coaching and mentoring, including best practice in feedback and reflective supervision, leadership values and distributed leadership.
• Methods and approaches to post-qualifying practice assessment with a focus on service user and carer feedback, evidence-informed decisions and ethical principles in the assessment of practice.
• Critical reflection on your own practice and interpersonal skills.

When will it run?

There will be two cohorts (5 days each) starting in October 2019 and February 2020

How will I be assessed?

• Peer observation report – You will observe and be observed in your practice by another participant and provide and receive formative written feedback.
• Written feedback from a supervisee – Feedback on your practice will inform your own reflection.
  Reflective essay – A critical reflection of your own practice in relation to supervision and practice assessment.

Who is this module for?

This module is for any social worker who as part of their role is involved in or responsible for the support, development or facilitation of reflective practice groups within or across organisations, such as Practice Educators, Team Leaders, Advanced Practitioners, Workforce Development staff, Teaching Consultants, ASYE Assessors, Coaches, Mentors or Principal Social Workers. You should be familiar with principles of adult learning introduced in ‘Assessing and Teaching the Adult Professional Learner’, and of concepts in relation to designing and evaluating learning in ‘Designing Learning Opportunities for Teams and Groups’, ‘Facilitating Learning in Teams and Groups’ and ‘Professional Supervision and Practice Assessment’.

How will it support my development?

The module introduces and expands theories and models of reflective practice with a focus on reflection in groups. It enables participants to develop their skills by practically exploring different models of professional reflection in groups. Participants will be given the opportunity to develop their group facilitation skills to an advanced level. They will use their developed knowledge and skills to develop the practice within their own organisation and/or across organisations.

What will I learn?

• Theories and models of reflective practice for groups to support emotional containment, challenge and evidence-informed professional
• Development of reflective questioning and group facilitation skills.
• Exploration of different models for professional reflection in groups.

How will I be assessed?

• Peer observation report – You will observe and be observed in your practice by another participant and provide and receive formative written feedback.
• Case study – A critical reflection in the form of a case study of the reflective practice session(s) participants have led in their own practice.

Who are these modules for?

The Work-based Learning modules are for social workers from all areas of practice and at all career levels who want to gain academic credit for developing their capability through work-based activities in either direct social work practice, practice education or management.

For example, as a social worker, you may want to deepen your learning gained in in-house training by doing a literature review of in relation to a topic covered in training, present your findings to your team and facilitate a discussion of implications. You then produce a literature review and discuss the implications in relation to team’s practice.

As a manager, you may want to identify an area of practice within your service or team to be improved and develop a small-scale research project to investigate current practice, followed by a literature review with a focus on good social work practice in relation to the topic. From this you will develop a proposal for a practice approach that is underpinned by theory, research, legislation, service users’ views and based on local need.

As a practice educator, in a workforce development role, you could develop an implementation plan for a practice development initiative based on theoretical and research literature and develop training plans and resources for the training of social workers, team managers, service users and others.

Goldsmiths offers applicants information sessions for these modules to help you decide, which module to apply for.

How will it support my development?

Your learning will focus on the enhancement of practice relevant to your role with a focus on professional leadership as defined by the PCF. You can follow your interests and extend your knowledge, skills and values. To support you with this you will be allocated a personal tutor with whom you agree individual learning outcomes and a personal reading list. An action plan will identify what you will do and what learning outcomes you should be able to achieve with this. You will be supported by a peer learning group. Overall you may gain up to 60 credits through any combination of these work-based modules.

What will I learn and how will I be assessed?

You will develop personal learning outcomes with your tutor that will focus on developing your knowledge, your critical thinking, your practice and your value base. You will produce an agreed learning plan (500 or 1000 words) (not graded), a portfolio (1,000-2,000 words or 2,000-4,000 words) (Pass/Fail) and an academic self-evaluation of learning and practice (2,000 words or 4,000 words) (Graded).

When will it run?

Work-based Learning Module 1 (15 credits) and Module 3 (30 credits) – Autumn Term: 25 October / 22 November and 13 December 2019.

Work-based Learning Module 2 (15 credits) and Module 4 (30 credits) – Spring Term: 24 January / 13 March / 30 April 2020

Who is this module for?

This module is for social workers who have already gained 120 MA-level credits and who want to achieve a Master in Professional Leadership for Social Work. This is the first of two modules that enable you to carry out a self-directed research project in a chosen area of practice.

How will it support my development?

The module introduces participants to the knowledge, ethics and skills associated with ethical research practice. The learning will support students to produce an evidence-informed, theory-based and ethically sound proposal for a research project.

What will I learn?

• Understanding of research methodology and methods.
• Research skills and methods necessary to evaluate and research advanced level professional leadership in direct practice, management or practice education.
• How to write a proposal for a research project.
• TBC by SELTP Curriculum Planning Group

How will I be assessed?

• Draft research proposal – A draft research proposal on which formative feedback will be provided.
• Research proposal – A proposal outlining the current discourse and knowledge in relation to the practice area that is being researched, the research question and the methodology for the research project. 
• Application for ethical approval.

Who is this module for?

This module is for social workers who have already gained 120 MA-level credits, have passed the module ‘Research Methods in Professional Leadership for Social Work’ and who want to achieve a Master in Professional Leadership for Social Work. This is the second of two modules that enable you to carry out a self-directed research project in a chosen area of practice.

How will it support my development?

The module focuses on your research practice and you are supported with individual supervision and action learning sets to carry out a self-directed research project based on your proposal produced in the ‘Research Methods in Professional Leadership for Social Work’ module. You will carry out a literature review of the topic area to develop your knowledge base in relation to your research question; investigate an area of professional leadership in direct practice, the management or practice education and; write your dissertation. As a practitioner-researcher, you will be supported to reflect on your role, on ethical issues of your research practice and on how to promote the rights and participation of service users and carers, learners and staff within their project. You will draw conclusions on how your research can contribute to the development of local and/or national practices and understanding of issues.

What will I learn?

• How to utilise research skills and methods necessary to evaluate and research advanced level professional leadership in direct practice, management or practice education.
• In-depth understanding based on an independent literature review in the chosen area of practice
• How to write a research dissertation
• TBC by SELTP Curriculum Planning Group

How will I be assessed?

• MA research dissertation
• Observation reports - Observation of practice to demonstrate advanced level professional leadership capability.