ICE7003 - Reflective Evidence Informed Child and Family Welfare Practice

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate a reflective and critical understanding of professional practice within the family support sector of the children and young people's workforce.
Demonstrate a reflective and critical understanding of the role of the child-centred leading practitioner, including multi-agency and collaborative working, responsibilities and quality assurance.
Independently and collaboratively apply theory to practice in order to formulate hypotheses and solutions to actual and potential issues arising in family support practice.
Use a variety of conventional and e-based interfaces to discuss critically moral and ethical aspects impacting upon their profession, both in terms of over-arching issues and in terms of their own role within their service setting.
Communicate complex academic and/or professional issues clearly and effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Content:

This module aims to develop students' skills in critically reflecting on and evaluating their academic and professional skills, applying them to family support practice. Students will be supported to analyse critically their past and current practice and to justify an account of 'evidence-informed practice' in this context. Topics covered will be as follows:

- Reflective evidence-informed national and international practice
- Multi-agency and collaborative practice
- Critical evaluation of the concept of evidence-informed practice
- A framework for Work Based Learning within a chosen setting and evaluation of its practice using a range of techniques (e.g. critical incident, action research, participant and non- participant observation)
- Examination of roles and responsibilities within family support
- Critical reflection upon the use of goals and targets within the work place
- Critical reflection upon concepts of the postgraduate practitioner, leadership and management.

The module will be focused around students' construction of an E portfolio, parts of which they will share with tutors and their peers. The E portfolio will include peer and mentor observations of practice.

Learning and Teaching Information:

The module is taught through lectures, seminars, action learning sets, group and individual tutorial support, personal study time and provision of multi-media resources via the University VLE. Throughout the delivery, students will be expected to relate theory to practice through practice-related research, some of which will be peer reviewed. Students will be supported to engage in reflective activity that considers theory against current practice, leading to critical reflection on and in practice. They will be expected to undertake a wide range of personal reading. Much of this will be self-sourced, with 'starter' readings provided through Moodle. The E portfolio, to be housed initially on Moodle, will form a central focus for learning activities on this module.

Lectures, seminars and tutorials
Hours: 12
Intended Group size: 24

Action learning sets (workshops)
Hours: 6
Intended Group size: 6-10

E activities
Hours: 6
Intended Group size: 1

Guided independent study Hours: 276