Assessment 4 - Submit 3 Journals

The journal provides students with a legitimate reason to stop and take a breath and reflect on the activities of the day, promoting and establishing the skills and habits of being a reflective practitioner.

Writing your journal goes beyond a recording of tasks or events. That type of recording is achieved with your the time logs, which should capture the tasks of your placement. Journalling is a real attempt by students to critically examine their activities and reflect on their thinking, feelings and behaviors, and the impact on their daily placement work, considering theoretical frameworks, personal value positions and professional ethics.

Your liaison should provide feedback to your journals to support your critical reflection and learning journey.

Each journal should address the specific topic/theme (outlined below) within the student's specific placement context.

Journal 1 - Organisational environment, culture, structure & goals

Journal 2 - Theory to Practice

Journal 3 - Professional identity

Students should choose a journal template (see below options) that they find most suited to their reflective task. Ideally, students would experiment with a different template for each of the three journal reflections.

Students are encouraged to complete the journals in the workplace, logging the time towards your placement hours.

>> Students who take journals 'home' to complete or find themselves' too busy' to complete within their placement hours should know that this is a flag to all stakeholders that you have forgotten that you are a 'student' not a 'worker'.

Aligned subject learning outcomes

• Demonstrate and apply knowledge of values, ethics and professionalism in social work practice
• Describe, reflect on and engage in culturally responsive and inclusive practice
• Explain the knowledge for social work practice and higher level systemic influences on people in order to implement knowledge into social work practice
• Demonstrate an appropriate level of interpersonal and communication skills informed by reflections on use of self
• Demonstrate information recording and sharing strategies within the placement context
• Actively participate in professional development and supervision.

Aligned professional standards/ competencies

AASW Standard 6.3 The social worker uses ongoing reflection on practice in order to enhance the development of their skills, knowledge and understanding

AASW Standard 6.4  The social worker views their own development as an ethical practitioner as essential.

Due Date:                     Journal 1 - after 1st liaison meeting

Journal 2 - around mid-placement liaison meeting time

Journal 3 - no later than 2 weeks prior to final placement week

(please confirm submission times with your liaison at the first liaison meeting)

Length:                          Students to submit 3 x journals 1200-1500 words each

Grading:                        Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory

You may select one of the templates available below, unless you have been directed otherwise by your liaison person.

Daily Journalling for learning, reflecting and self-care

As part of your placement hours and placement learning, you have a daily allocation of 30min to write journal notes and complete your daily time log.

Establishing a routine of daily journalling can provide you with a meanigful activity and time for critical reflection and therefore learning. Furthermore, allowing yourself to sit, think and reflect can become a useful selfcare tool as part of your daily practice. Use this space of transitiong to allow yourself to finish your day of placement learning and to move on with the rest of your day and potential commitments such as study, work, family.

Below some ideas for reflection topics.

Use your daily reflection notes as a basis for writing your three journals as per the assessment task.

Download the below templates to your device. Open the downloaded file with the program ADOBE READER and save the document with the command 'save as'.

Give your journal entries an appropriate file name e.g. 'journal1_Tanya_Smith_WS5303'.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

You need to use the freely available program ADOBE READER to open and work with this fillable PDF document.

Using a different program (e.g. Mac users have a default PDF application called 'Reader') will corrupt the file and result in the fillable cells not showing up properly.

Even just opening a PDF with the default Mac reader application (not even making a edit) seems to have the potential to make text fields disappear.

Please keep that in mind as it will make your life and your field educator's and liaison person's way easier...