Factors contributing to student learning in internships of social work
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
The article analyzes factors contributing to field learning (in organizations providing social services) among students in the social work study programme, including educational environment, learning assessment and competence of the internship mentor. 62 Mykolas Romeris university students participated in the survey. The survey revealed that students choose to enter internships in organizations which take into consideration the student's internship goals and provide help in attaining them. Students articulate the need for unofficial communication, reflection on tasks and qualitative assessment of achievements. Student learning in internships is generally evaluated by observing student performance in tasks. On the other hand, personal conversation, reflection, peer evaluation by organization staff and written reflection are rarely used as evaluation tools. The study revealed a lack of maintained feedback between the internship supervisor and the student. In conclusion, the quality of student learning in internships contingent upon the competence of their mentor, such as ability in planning student learning, carrying out professional work review involving the students and analyzing its outcome.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Section
Articles
Mykolas Romeris University retains copyright ownership and publishing rights. Authors contributing to Social Inquiry into Well-Being agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public (CC BY-NC-ND) License, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this licence are made clear.
