Evidencing the outcomes of professional education: a perspective from social

work

Elaine Sharland, Professor of Social Work Researchon behalf of

Suzy Braye, Professor of Social Work University of Sussex

Understanding Teacher Learning: Seminar 14th March 2013

The political context for developments over 10 years

UK wide “what-works” focus

Government investment in

the new degree-level

initial qualification

SCIE remit to develop the

evidence base for social care

Continued and developing debates on

what constitutes evidence

Political focus on professional

education arising from child death enquiries

How did this take shape nationally?

Funding for a series of knowledge

reviews in core curriculum areas, each comprising:

(a) Systematic review of the

literature(b) Practice survey

Human growth & development, mental health

and disability

Assessment, planning, intervention and review

Communication skills

Law

Partnership working

PLUS, based on the findings, a series of Resource Guides and

E-learning Resources were published

The knowledge reviewswww.scie.org.uk

So far, so good, but …

The OSWE Project: Evaluating the Outcomes of Social Work Education

A push for a ‘more robust’ evidence base for professional education

Quantifiable outcomes Impact on professional practice

The KRs sourced evidence of a particular kindQualitative research

Descriptive accounts of

education practice

Perceived and experienced outcomes

“The poor quality of research design of many studies, together with the limited information provided in the published accounts are major problems in establishing an evidence base for social work education” (Carpenter 2005, p.4)

The OSWE project

Implementation of approaches outlined in Carpenter (2005):

http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/misc/evalreport.pdf* provides a conceptual basis for discussion of learning outcomes * outlines a range of methods for evaluating them

A learning set for social work educators that aimed to:

* develop participants’ methodological expertise in research design that will measure outcomes* enhance the evidence base to inform educators’ choice of approaches to professional learning in social work

Completion of the project

Learning set results published - Burgess and Carpenter (2010): http://www.swap.ac.uk/docs/monograph2_oswe.pdf

“The project shows that it is possible to measure learning and that this approach can be used to refine teaching to maximise learning” (Moira Gibb, foreword).

Mixed results

Progress in outcome measures

Challenges remain in research design

Replication of the ‘collaborative capacity building’/learning set

approachEvidence on the value and challenges of the collaborative capacity building/learning set approach in motivating and supporting innovation in learning strategies

http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/elearning/files/EvaluationSummary.pdf Full report also available

Key issues going forward

•There is some way to go in order to build a robust evidence base on social worker learning

•There is emerging evidence of impact on knowledge, skill and attitude development

•Research designs that improve attributional reliability are needed

•Research designs that provide evidence of impact on professional behaviour in practice, and service user remain a challenge

•A collaborative capacity building approach can be effective in improving knowledge and confidence in evaluating outcomes