Phd Program in Social Welfare

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Research Practicum

Soc WL 582-583, two-quarter sequence to be completed by end of second year,
6 cr. total—Credit/No Credit

The research practicum provides students with supervised hands-on, practical experience with a member of the Social Welfare Faculty or Graduate Faculty member in a related discipline in an ongoing research project. Practica based in projects located outside the school must be coordinated and approved by the Program Director. Typical activities include data analysis, interpretation of results, and research report writing. Practica involve activities such as subject recruitment and screening, instrument development, and data collection.

Each winter, the PhD Program Director surveys the Social Welfare Faculty for research opportunities and provides the students with descriptions of them. First-year students review these project descriptions and contact faculty whose projects appear to offer closest fit with the students’ learning priorities. Many students search out opportunities on their own, which is acceptable as long as the Program Director is notified and approves of the arrangement. The practicum mentor must have Graduate Faculty status.

In selecting a project and formulating learning objectives, students are encouraged to use the Guidelines for Research and Teaching Competencies in the PhD Program to assess their level of research skill in several areas. Match of substantive interests is one criterion; however, students may consider projects outside their core interests if methods and analysis opportunities offer a good match. Students' self-assessments of research strengths and weaknesses can be augmented with input from PhD course instructors and advisors.

Practicum Objectives

The primary objective of the practicum is to strengthen a student’s ability to synthesize various phases and components of social welfare research prior to undertaking dissertation research. The key to this is the ability to articulate linkages between the research questions, the data gathered to address these questions, the techniques selected for manipulating and analyzing the data, and the interpretation of findings and implications in terms relevant to the original research questions. While the research practicum may not expose students to the specific population or problem of greatest interest to them, the skills and competencies mastered should help prepare students methodologically to carry out their dissertation research.

Overall Practicum Guidelines

• The student and faculty supervisor arrange the practicum well in advance of the quarter in which it takes place so that the student can prepare by undertaking background reading.
  
• In every case, the student and faculty preceptor develop a practicum learning contract by identifying the learning goals, primary activities toward achieving these goals, and meeting schedule within which training and supervision by the faculty preceptor will take place. (See Research Practicum course form.)
  
• The time commitment is a minimum of 8 hours per week including 2 to 4 hours direct supervision by the faculty preceptor or designee.
  
• A paper is written in a scholarly format that parallels writing for professional publication. This paper synthesizes the substantive and research activities and achievements of the student’s learning objectives. The details and specific format are negotiated between the student and supervising faculty member so that the paper will benefit the project as well as serve as an opportunity for faculty feedback on scholarly writing skills. A copy of this summary paper must be forwarded to the PhD Program Director at the end of the second quarter. Students are encouraged to pursue publishable work stemming from this practicum. However, the practicum activities and summary paper must be of a scale that is realistically achievable in two quarters.
  
• The supervising faculty member provides feedback on the paper and on the extent to which the student’s activities and performance achieved the learning objectives. Faculty supervisors should provide a summary letter that the student may include in her/his professional portfolio (e.g., for later job searches).
  
• The Research Practicum is not usually undertaken in the same funded study, program, or unit in which the student is concurrently serving as a Research Assistant. To do so requires the approval of the Doctoral Program Director. In such a situation, the student and faculty supervisor are expected to provide a detailed written practicum contract that clarifies the differences between the two roles. A strict distinction must be maintained between the RA duties and work week, and the goals, objectives, and weekly time commitment of the practicum; the practicum time is in addition to the RA employee time and is based on the standard Graduate School formula for hours of effort per credit hour.

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Registration Form: the Learning Contract

Registration for the practicum involves meeting with the faculty mentor to prepare the Registration Form. The form serves as the course contract and syllabus, and typically includes the days and hours the student will devote to the practicum, research skills to be mastered, research tasks to be performed, research training to be supplied by the preceptor, and a brief outline of the proposed final written product. The form (contract) must be prepared by both the faculty supervisor and student and submitted to the PhD Program Office for approval at least 2 weeks before the start of the first quarter in which the practicum takes place.
The Director must approve the form before the student can register for the course.

The student sends the completed form as an email attachment to the faculty supervisor. The supervisor then forwards the form to the Program Assistant Director (kwilham@u.washington.edu) indicating in the forwarding email that she/he approves the plan. The Assistant Director prints out the form, obtains the Program Director approval, and then emails the student with the codes for registration.
(A detailed step-by-step outline for planning and conducting the research practicum is attached to the registration form.)

Practicum Evaluation

At the end of the practicum, the student and mentor should meet together to evaluate the practicum experience. The student fills out an evaluation of the practicum and submits it to the Program Director.

Teaching Practicum

Soc WL 584, to be completed by end of second year, 3 cr.—Credit/No Credit

Many PhD students assume teaching or administrative positions in higher education after graduation, and teaching skills are important to virtually all leadership roles related to effective presentation, communication, supervision, evaluation, training, and mentoring activities. One component of the doctoral program's teaching preparation is this one-quarter educational practicum (typically undertaken in the second year) for the purpose of working closely with a faculty member to observe teaching methods and acquire hands-on teaching experience.

Students often find that additional practica beyond the one-quarter requirement are helpful in preparing them for teaching roles.
Each spring, the PhD Program Assistant Director surveys the Social Welfare faculty for teaching opportunities for the coming school year and provides the students with descriptions of those available. Many students search out opportunities, which is also acceptable as long as the Program Director approves the arrangement. The practicum mentor must have Graduate Faculty status.

Practicum Goals

The primary goal of the teaching practicum is to provide students with teaching experience within a classroom setting. The students receive instruction and feedback from faculty supervisors who are responsible for the courses in which the practica take place. Students’ practica will vary in the extent to which emphasis is placed on instructional time, course development (e.g., preparation of syllabus, assignments, and bibliography), assignment grading, and other curriculum review and planning issues and tasks.

Practicum Objectives

Several areas of learning are important for students preparing to teach social work content. In planning the teaching practicum, the student and faculty mentor should identify several specific skills for development over the course of the quarter. These should be discussed in the Learning Contract and in the Summarizing Paper. The skills focused on in a specific Teaching Practicum should be derived from the Guidelines for Research and Teaching Competencies.

The following aspects of teaching are important for all students and thus reflect common objectives for all practica:

1. Understanding the educational goals of the course and the relation of the course goals to the practicum goals.
2. Understanding the relation of the course goals to specific content areas included in the course and the process of selection of assigned reading materials.
3. Understanding the relation between the course goals, content, and the instructional methods chosen.
4. Understanding the relation between course goals, content, teaching, and the formulation of student evaluation methods and criteria.
5. Understanding the conceptualization and execution of the course syllabus, including specifics of the course outline. The student should get firsthand experience in developing course requirements and policies.
6. Preparing class sessions for the planned course. Class preparation might include discussion of the specific objectives of the class session, selection of assigned readings, teaching aids, and issues of classroom delivery.
7. Acquiring classroom management skills including
   • how to deliver content
   • how to lead a discussion
   • how to handle questions and answers
   • how to obtain feedback from students regarding the class process.

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Overall Practicum Guidelines

• In general, students should consider practicum placements in courses that will be most valuable to them when they enter the academic job market (e.g., HBSE, policy, practice methods, research). However, other factors such as teaching style may influence which courses or supervisors students seek out.
• Typically, the course should be a masters or undergraduate level course, not one in which other doctoral students are registered.
• Students and faculty supervisors should arrange the practicum well in advance of the quarter in which the practicum course takes place so that the student can be involved in syllabus development and other course preparation tasks.
• Faculty preceptors and students meet weekly. Supervision time should be directed to fulfilling the specific expectations for the teaching practicum as outlined in the Learning Contract as well as to addressing ongoing issues associated with the class. Faculty preceptors need to provide ongoing feedback to students regarding their progress toward meeting the goals of the teaching practicum.
• A teaching assistantship may not be substituted for the teaching practicum nor can the two be combined in the same course in the same quarter. The roles and expectations of a doctoral student who is employed to provide faculty support as a teaching assistant are different from (and sometimes in tension with) the roles and expectation of a student engaged in a practicum. Students may petition the Steering Committee for an exception to this non-concurrent rule; however, such a petition must describe the explicate arrangements between student and faculty preceptor that will serve to preserve the learning aspect of the practicum.

Registration Form: the Learning Contract

Registration for the practicum involves meeting with the faculty mentor to prepare the Registration Form. The form serves as the course contract and syllabus, and typically includes the days and hours the student will devote to the practicum, skills to be mastered, tasks to be performed, and training to be supplied by the preceptor. The form (contract) must be approved by both the faculty supervisor and student and submitted to the PhD Program Office for approval at least 2 weeks before the start of the quarter in which the practicum takes place. The Director must approve the form before the student can register for the course.

The student sends the completed form as an email attachment to the faculty supervisor. The supervisor then forwards the form to the Assistant Director (kwilham@u.washington.edu) indicating in the forwarding email that she/he approves the plan. The Assistant Director prints out the form, obtains the Program Director approval, and then emails the student with the codes for registration.
(A detailed step-by-step outline for planning and conducting the research practicum is attached to the form.)

Student Responsibilities

The student is expected to devote an average of 8 to 10 hours per week to the practicum. These hours cover various aspects in the teaching palate (e.g., class preparation, classroom time, office hours, assignment review/grading, and meeting with the faculty supervisor) in keeping with the individual learning contract. In all instances, such activities should be in service to the student’s learning of key aspects of the teaching role, not as a substitute for the faculty member.

Students are expected to develop a teaching portfolio while in the PhD program, and materials from the practicum are typically excellent additions to this portfolio.

(See Resource Summary Guide section on Catalyst and visit the Catalyst website for info on how to beginning building Portfolios.)

The Summary Report

In the Summary Report, students should reflect, in a holistic fashion, about how fully they have attained their learning objectives including what strengths as well as challenges they see in their current teaching practice. Next steps for on-going teaching preparation should be considered in the report as well. The report should specifically address the topics listed in the practicum contract, such as syllabus development, student evaluation, teaching activities (e.g., lectures, discussions, exercises), and feedback shared between the student and practicum instructor regarding areas of strength and suggested improvement.

A copy of the Summary Report must be forwarded to the director of the doctoral program at the end of the teaching practicum quarter. [Note: The report will be placed in a binder of example practicum papers unless student requests otherwise.]

Faculty Responsibilities

The practicum is based upon a mentorship model. The configuration of experience and therefore of supervisory responsibility will be negotiated between the student and instructor, elucidated in the learning contract, and approved by the PhD Program Director.

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Practicum Evaluation

At the end of the practicum, the student and mentor should meet together to evaluate the practicum experience. The student fills out an evaluation of the practicum and submits it to the Program Director.

General Teaching Preparation

Doctoral students are strongly encouraged to use services sponsored by the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR) and other teaching training efforts offered through the University and School (e.g., orientation for new TAs and auxiliary faculty). In addition, the PhD Program Office maintains notebooks listing learning opportunities and teaching resources (e.g., the UW TA Training Manual and a notebook on Teaching Resources), and the PhD program has books on reserve in the Social Work Library for the Teaching Course (Soc WL 559).

As an extracurricular opportunity for teaching preparation, students are encouraged to approach Social Work faculty to request permission to sit in on BASW and MSW classes as informal observers. Faculty are usually quite willing to provide such opportunities. Each year, students should identify courses of interest to them as future teachers and seek out faculty members who practice particular teaching methods that they are interested in. The students then contact the faculty members describing the students' interests in the course/method and asking permission to observe a session (or more if appropriate).