Key words
Educational skills and methods.
Objectives
A Bachelor in Special Education is constantly confronted with challenging situations and questions (or cries for help) from the person seeking help and his surroundings/environment, in which he and his team will have to decide how best to proceed.
To make prudent choices, it is imperative that he forges a working relationship, from within which he can observe the situation, as it unfolds, analyze it and confer with others about it.
Within that working relationship (with his team and the person seeking help), he systematically organizes the kind(s) of care and support which are needed. This requires a clear grasp of the process of (social) casework and, of the professional as a person and of the setting of practice.
The purpose of this training module is to shape these objectives by fostering and developing the following core skills from the training profile:
Job-specific core skills
-1. Proceeding from one’s own identity and a solid theoretical basis, to display professional competence in the vocational practice; to be objectively critical, communicative and creative.
Supporting subset skill:
- Systematically and constantly, to objectively reflect on how the level of
professional competence can be raised, based on one’s own identity and in interaction with
others.
-2. Drawing upon the professional attitude, to give a tailor-made answer (both verbal and non-verbal) to the customer’s pleas for help.
General core skills
General ( generic) core skill
-3. To reason logically, correctly and with a wide-ranging point of view.
Supporting subset skill:
- To make sufficient and correct use of the relevant conceptual frameworks;
- To integrate the interaction between theory and practice in his professional competence.
This training module is scheduled in standard educational route 1 because it focuses on the basic knowledge and basic skills of (social) casework such as to act systematically, to set goals, to observe and to report .
On standard educational route 1 this training module is connected with the training module ‘Orthopedagogical Practice 2’. This training module can serve as a foundation course for other modules on standard educational route 2, e.g. ‘ Orthopedagogical action planning’, ‘Aspects of professional functioning’, ‘Working in and with groups 1 and 2’, ‘Family support models’, ‘Orthopedagogical methods and interventions’ and ‘Work placement: 1’.
On standard educational route 3, we see a link with the following modules: ‘Theoretical models of Orthopedagogics’ and ‘Work placement 2’.
Topics
I. Methodical practice: basic knowledge
1. What is (social) casework and how to act professional?:
- the start of (social) casework;
- definition and terminology;
- goals and premises;
- some principles of practice.
2. Method and methodology:
- the differences;
- a definition;
- the elements.
3. Systematic approach:
- points of consideration and conditions;
- the importance of acting precisely and concrete;
- different stages.
4. Professional approach of problems:
- to define a question or a problem;
- from question/problem to solution.
5. To set goals and strategies.
II. To perceive, to observe and to report
1. To perceive
- the importance for a Bachelor in Special Education;
- factors of influence.
2. To observe
- definition;
- different methods of observation;
- objective versus subjective;
- different systems of observation;
- observation versus interpretation.
3. To report
- definition;
- different kinds of reports ( written versus verbal).
III. The person of the educator-supervisor
- position and competences;
- domination, authority, prestige;
- personal aspects.
IV. The setting of practice
- management and organisation;
- position related to a target group.
Prerequisites
Entry-level skills
Exit qualifications in secondary education.
Final Objectives
Exit-level skills
The core skills from the training profile listed in the ‘objectives’ section are fully underpinned by the following exit-level skills of the training module:
At the level of knowledge and comprehension
The students:
- Correctly define what (social) casework entails;
- Explain the start of (social) casework;
- Essentially describe:
- the goals and premises of (social) casework;
- the principles of practice;
- the difference between method and methodology;
- the points of consideration in systematic approach.
- Correctly indicate the different stages in a systemic approach and in the process to a solution;
- Indicate the importance of perceiving for a Bachelor in Special Education;
- Correctly explain why our perception is distort;
- Can differentiate the different methods of observing and logging data;
- Describe properly:
- personal elements of a Bachelor in Special Education such as position and competences,
domination, authority and prestige, characteristic elements;
- elements in the setting of practice such as management and organisation, position related
to a target group.
- Consciously link theory to cases.
At the application level - skills
The students:
- Correctly observe and report based on theoretical frameworks;
- Made – if necessary – a practical scheme of observation.
Materials used
::Click here for additional information::
Book: Winckelaer, P. (2004). Methodisch werken. Inleiding tot methodisch handelen met en voor mensen.(Methodical practice. An introduction to act in a methodical way with and for people). Utrecht: De Tijdstroom;
Learning pack (obtainable from the coursewear department), newspaper articles, scientific papers and supplementary material accessible via Dokeos).
Study costs
The estimated cost price is ca. 40 euros.
Study guidance
Questions can be asked at the end of each lesson.
At the end of this training module the teacher shall explain how to study the theoretical frames of this module and shall also indicate the most important topics;
Examples of exam questions are gone through in class.
Teaching Methods
Interactive lectures with discussions;
Made concrete with visual material (video) and casuistry.
Assessment
An examination for this training module is scheduled in the exam period at the end of the semester in which you took this course.
A written examination consisting of restricted questions, open-ended questions and casuistry.
The examination focuses on the topics and exit-level skills of this training module.
The total number of questions is limited to what can be got through comfortably within the allotted time for the exam.
Resits
An analogous written exam is organized during the resits.
Lecturer(s)
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