Evidencing the outcomes of professional education: a perspective from social work Elaine Sharland, Professor of Social Work Research on behalf of Suzy Braye, Professor of Social Work University of Sussex Understanding Teacher Learning: Seminar 1 4 th 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 reviews

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 outcomesImpact on professional practice The KRs sourced evidence of a particular kind Qualitative 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): 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): “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 Need for more robust designs Maturational effect? Hawthorne effect ? Attributional unreliability Mainly before/after single group designs Self efficacy scalesConcept mapping Vignette/video rating

Replication of the ‘collaborative capacity building’/learning set approach Braye et al (2011) Law learning in action: an action learning project to evaluate processes and outcomes of using law e-learning objects in social work education Evidence on how a particular learning strategy (e-learning) can be shown to impact on students’ learning Evidence on the value and challenges of the collaborative capacity building/learning set approach in motivating and supporting innovation in learning strategies 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