Reflective practice in social work education: learning from “difficult” experiences in field practice

All over the world, social work students must put in a certain number of hours of student placement in order to graduate. They gradually come to behave like social workers by learning from their experience, sometimes making mistakes, and often experiencing difficult emotions. This may generate very fruitful reflective processes because the unrest and perplexity that unexpected situations produce fuel a strong motivation to find satisfying answers to the many questions that arise. Providing the conditions in which students can learn is the best way to teach them about social work and to guide them through forms of structured reflection. This process may be more fruitful if the reflection is nurtured by ‘smart questions’ (that is, ones that puzzle and get to the bottom of the issue) and reflective frameworks available for in-depth reflection on ‘difficult’ experiences, like failures and strong emotions. Also, strategies of reflective writing are highly effective because they produce very...

All over the world, social work students must do a certain number of hours of student placement in order to graduate. They gradually come to act like social workers by learning from their experience, sometimes making mistakes, and often experiencing difficult emotions. This may generate very fruitful reflective processes because the unrest and perplexity that unexpected situations produce fuel a strong motivation to find satisfying answers to the many questions that arise. Providing the conditions in which students can learn is the best way to teach them about social work, as well as to guide them through forms of structured reflection. This process may be more fruitful if the reflection is nurtured by ‘smart questions’ (that is, ones that puzzle and get to the bottom of the issue) and reflective frameworks available for in-depth reflection on ‘difficult’ experiences, like failures and strong emotions. Also, strategies of reflective writing are highly effective because they produce very rich material that gives a global view to students on what happened not only during single events but also during the entire placement. Reflection is technically possible and ethically desirable because it improves the quality of the services provided by social workers. The proposed chapter will develop the ideas summarised above, illustrate some of the most promising reflective tools in social work education, and propose some examples and micro-stories written by students reflecting on their field practice.