Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It’s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice. This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice that aims to help students become more confident in answering key questions, including ′what is reflective practice?′, ‘how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?’, ‘how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts?’. There are sections on writing reflective journals, communicating well with service users and carers and reflective practice while on placements.

This book provides social workers with a framework for reflecting on their day-to-day practice. Using a social worker's diary as a starting point, it provides valuable insight in to how reflection enhances skills and how factors such as values and emotions can shape social work practice.

Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social work professional. This book demystifies the reflective process and provides a straight forward knowledge base to enhance professional development. Whether you are a qualifying social work student, a practitioner with supervisory responsibilities, or are engaged in professional post qualifying education and training, this book will help you to understand and evidence your development as a reflective practitioner, and guide the assessment of others’ ability to reflect. Topics covered include: How to develop a professional identity and an understanding of professional culture A summary of key theoretical explanations of the concepts of ‘reflection’ and ‘reflective practice’ The significance of Emotional Intelligence for social work practice and how the reflective process can enhance interpersonal and intrapersonal competence How to overcome common obstacles to reflective practice, including low motivation and lack of confidence in your reflective abilities How to write reflectively in order to evidence development of reflective practice to others How to create a learning environment that enables growth and development through reflection and provides accurate assessment outcomes Written in a straightforward and engaging way, with reflective activities and resources throughout, this key resource will develop your knowledge, understanding and application of reflective practice. "This is a well-written text that provides much-needed clarity around a central process within professional social work. Students, practitioners and managers will learn lots about how to use reflection effectively. Linda Bruce writes with authority and a deep understanding - she has done an excellent job." Steven Hothersall, Head of Social Work Education, Edgehill University, UK "This is an extremely important area of practice in the current complex world of social work practice and social care. It takes students and practitioners through the relevant knowledge and theory base and appropriate tools for reflection. I thoroughly recommend it." Joyce Lishman

What is a mistake in social work and how can we turn it into a positive learning experience? Simply going over the events of the day is often not enough and can become overwhelming. Learning from professional errors is, however, vital for successful reflective practice. This important book presents a theoretical framework that underpins this learning, along with a series of strategies for social workers to use either by themselves or as part of a group. These include creating questions and narratives to enhance learning, assertive techniques for receiving and offering criticism and organisational learning from mistakes. With plenty of practice examples and questions for reflection, this is essential reading for both social work students, and practitioners and managers at all stages of their career.

Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It′s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice. This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice to help students become more confident in answering key questions, including ′what is reflective practice?′, ′how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?′ and ′how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts?′. There are many useful resources such as Writing reflective journals, Communicating well with service users and carers and Reflective practice while on placements.

This substantially revised, expanded and updated edition of the popular Handbook of Theory for Practice Teachers is a comprehensive summary of the theory, knowledge, research and evidence relating to practice learning in social care. Focussing on knowledge-based practice with a focus on improving outcomes, the five sections of the book cover: * the reasons and circumstances in which people may become social work service users * a holistic consideration of assessment in general and specific contexts, including risk assessment and management * methods of intervention, including cognitive behavioural social work, task centred practice, advocacy, crisis intervention, family therapy and group care * the legal, policy, research and evidence context in which assessment and intervention occur, as well as interdisciplinary work and organisational aspects of social work practice * reflective practice, evaluation and evidence based practice as integral parts of social workers' engagement with the complex needs of individuals outside the existing parameters of policy or research findings. This key text is essential reading for students, practitioners and teachers in social work.

Ken Moffatt turns to postmodern philosophy's grappling with late capitalism and the omnipresence of technology in order to develop a new approach to reflective social work practice and critical pedagogy. He attempts to reconcile postmodern thinkers with the realities of teaching social work to diverse student populations in a precarious era.

This book offers unique interdisciplinary insights into developing connections between reflective practice and employability particularly through the lenses of the education and social work professions. It recognises the various meanings that can be applied to the notion of reflection and examines the challenges of using reflective practice in the workplace. The chapters explore the tensions that arise from preparing professionals to be agents of change and concerned with social justice and equity. Further, the book provides much needed perspective on how diverse positions can be identified and leveraged and shared meanings negotiated in the creation of meaningful professional learning resources for early career teachers and social workers and across the career continuum. Bringing together contributions from internationally renowned scholars, Reflective Practice in Education and Social Work is essential reading for early career and experienced professionals in education and social work, academics and practitioners seeking further professional development in reflective practice.

Since the publication of Donald Schön's The Reflective Practitioner in 1983 there has been a dramatic growth of research and writing developing the concept of reflective learning. Surprisingly, there has been little application of concepts of reflective learning to social work education. This volume: ¢ makes accessible for the first time to a social work readership a book which focuses on reflective learning in social work ¢ brings together material on reflective learning from both academic and practice settings ¢ creates a seminal text for educators and trainers in universities and practice settings ¢ has relevance to an international readership, with contributions from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.

A critical characteristic of human service organizations is their capacity to learn from experience and to adapt continuously to changing external conditions such as downward pressure on resources, constant reconfiguration of the welfare state and rapidly changing patterns of social need. This invaluable, groundbreaking volume discusses in detail the concept of the learning organization, in particular its relevance to social work and social services. Contributors join together from across Europe, North America and Australia to explore the development of the learning organization within social work contexts and its use as a strategic tool for meeting problems of continuous learning, supervision and change. The volume addresses a range of important topics, from strategies for embedding learning and critical reflection in the social work learning organization, to the implications of the learning organization for the new community-based health and social care agenda.