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Importance of Critical Reflection in Social Work
- Topics: Critical Reflection Social Work
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Critical Reflection plays a significant role in social work, when practicing social work, it is important to reflect on new but also old experience for present and future learning. In Gardner’s Being Critically Reflective: Engaging in Holistic Practice she writes a section called ‘Theoretical Underpinnings’ which talks about the four theories that both Jan Fook and she ‘use the primary underpinning blocks for critical reflection (Fook and Gardner, 2007). Gardner (2014) also mentions that psychodynamic and narrative approaches are also used to complement critical reflection by practitioners and their organisations. In addition to this Gardner (2014) also talks about ‘the main four theories of critical reflection, including psychodynamic and spirituality theory and their contribution’. The four theories that Gardner (2014) talks about are ‘Reflective Practice, Reflexivity, Postmodernism and Critical social theory’.
Gardner (2014) summarises all 4 theories listed above, to begin she firstly addresses reflective practice which ‘emphasises identifying the feelings, thoughts, values and assumptions that influence practice; valuing experiential or practice knowledge and developing awareness of the differences between espoused theory and theory used in practice.’ She then moves onto talking about reflexivity which ‘generates understanding about the complexities of how workers and their service users/communities perceive themselves and each other, the value of understanding that all of who we are (physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, spiritually) influences how we perceive others and are perceived by them. Postmodernism is summarised next which Gardner (2014) states it ‘challenges modernist thinking that assigns people to limit categories and often to binaries, understanding of the impact of current thinking at a social level including attitudes to and influences of power and how this is embedded in language’. In Gardner’s final summary she talks about critical social theory which ‘Identifies the interrelationships between cultural and social values and expectations and how these are internalized by individuals, often in unhelpful ways; emphasises the importance of social justice approach’.
Reflective practice is perceived to be originated with Schon (1983) where he talks about reorganising values in practice in order to view certain situations differently. Schon (1983) states ‘this learning from experience includes the ability to stand back from what is happening to explore thoughts, reactions and/or assumptions that might influence a situation. Schon (1983) also talks about how his uncertainties act as a learning opportunity and assure the aligning of power imbalances to seek out connections and mutual respect between client and practitioner. Wright (2009) also mentions that ‘focusing on the feelings or emotions is often a gateway to accessing the underlying assumptions or values that are important that each person is reacting from. This too is central to psychodynamic thinking. Gardner (2014) states that ‘a psychodynamic approach can foster understanding of the range of ways we guard against recognising what is painful or what we do not want to be aware of’.
Reflexivity ‘suggests practitioners need ongoing reflection, ‘a self-consciousness that allows us to be reflexive, to consider how we impact others, how we present to others, how we are perceived and that includes that context within which we engage, as well as our role and specific mandate’ (Walsh, 2012, p.192). In this section Gardner (2014) uses an example which talks about how one can perceive themselves differently in a mirror sometimes good and sometimes bad provided this she reminds readers that ‘we may be perceived differently by others from the way we perceive ourselves – they are seeing different views, ones that we are not so conscious of’
Postmodernism ‘emphasises the diversity and complexity of what influences events and a more subjective way of experiencing the world’ (Gardner, 2014). In addition to this Fook (2002), states that ‘postmodernism also raises awareness of dichotomous thinking, that is seeing the world in pairs of opposites, which imply that one group is better than the other. Gardner (2014) concludes the postmodernism section and says that ‘it is important to that post modernists like any other group vary: some would be reluctant to suggest any kind of shared sense of culture, preferring always to ask what the subjective meaning is for a particular person’.
The last theory is mentioned in Gardner’s book is a critical social theory (2014). Ife (2008) states ‘the critical aspect here provides a limit or balance to what might be perceived as a postmodern sense of anything is possible and equally valued. Support for social justice means advocating for principles that relate to human rights that will underpin practice. Brookfield (2005) also ‘suggest that we can’t know exactly what working from a socially just perspective will mean, until we try it in practice’. This is where it is important to try practising in a social perspective manner in order to know if it will be ideal or not.
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In around the fifth week of placement, I attended a home visit with one of the case managers I work with, this home visit took place at the client’s house when we arrived the client opened the door and greeted us to come inside and have a seat. To begin the case manager and I sat down and had a conversation with the client just to set a comfortable space for assessment when a representative from the council will come and perform an assessment for the client. We were also waiting for the client’s daughter who organised this assessment. Some back story of the client, the client is 90 years old and is still currently smoking. The client is currently on level 2 but she is wanting to be upgraded to a higher level to get more funding as both her and her daughter feel like level 2 is not enough for her. The client has mentioned that due to her weak fingers she is unable to use the microwave to heat up her food, which is where the services from my agency provide. Due to being on level two there are limited hours for care workers to come and help warm up food for her as the other hours are spent for home help and personal care such as bathing and clothing the client.
When the assessor arrived, I was excited to see what sort of assessment this council representative will do. As per usual the casual greeting ‘hello how are you’ to myself, the case managers I attended with and to the client and the client’s daughter. We outlined the problem to the council representative making sure she knows that the funding the client is currently on is not enough and we require this reassessment to apply for a higher level. The council representative starts to take down details and starts to talk about what are the current services she is receiving as we started to outline what she is receiving and who from the council representative started to change the way she spoke, during the time I did not want to judge on how she was speaking but I found it difficult not to.
The council representative used a lot of ‘In my opinion’ and ‘I think you should do this’ during this time and come from a social work background I thought this was not right. As I kept listening I realised that the council also provides home care packages for their clients and her goal was to get this client to change service providers to the council, this is because I remember her saying ‘AVWA’ (where my agency is) ‘Always give out ensure milk to the client as a nutritional supplement even when they don’t need it’. I sat there hearing that and felt so annoyed especially when I looked over at the case manager, he was speechless. I felt like the council representative meant well but still had a capitalist view on things.
In applying Gardner’s (2014) critical reflection model the first stage of stage one is ‘exploring my reaction and where I was coming from’. To begin Gardner (2014) talks about context and what was the background influenced my experience, personally, I think this affected me because studying social work was the main background where this influenced how I felt, it was not right for the council representative to provide opinions and point fingers as to which way the client should go, I felt like the client had no say into what was happening and the council representative was just coming up with a care plan with no negotiation from both the client and the client’s daughter.
In terms of reactions, I felt like I reacted quite calmly I as a social work student when coming along on home visits with either my supervisor or other case managers I try to keep calm, sit and just observe. But this time around I found it difficult not to show emotion especially when the council representative continuously said ‘In my opinion’ in a very pushy tone. When did the council representative say that I found myself looking over to the case manager giving him a look that meant ‘is what she saying correct or am I crazy to be judging right now? As I gave him this look he looked back at me giving me assurance that this is not right and we both felt uncomfortable.
In terms of meaning, this scenario has really stood out to me because I felt uneasy and at first I did not know why sitting there listening to this lady made me feel this way. But as I sat there I tried to reflect to myself and tried to think about why this is so important to me at the time I just knew that something was not right about the situation but could not pinpoint what was wrong and why it mattered to me. After the home visit and on the way home in the car with the case manager I spoke to him and voiced what I was feeling at the time and asked myself but also him if I was crazy for thinking that the situation was not right, he replies to me and says ‘I don’t know what we got ourselves into, she was pushing our client to leave us a service provider, she was making up stuff about our agency, she was creating a care plan with the client with no negotiation. Of course, you’re not crazy, I felt uncomfortable too’. After the case manager voiced what he had to say everything started to make sense to me, I realised what underlying values and beliefs were there for me, are that studying social work I like to be client centred and use the best interest of the client, on the other hand, this clashed with the council representative as she was quite task centred and just came up with a care plan to ‘get things done’. I felt super conflicted after this home visit and had to tell someone about it.
In Gardner’s second stage of stage one she talks about ‘What other reactions could there be? In this section, I will be talking about the reaction of the case manager I went along with.
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Social Work Reflective Essay
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Reflective Essay On Social Work
Critical aspects of social work essay.
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Critical Reflection On Social Work
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More about Critical Reflection On Social Work
Critical Reflection
A Critical Reflection (also called a reflective essay) is a process of identifying, questioning, and assessing our deeply-held assumptions – about our knowledge, the way we perceive events and issues, our beliefs, feelings, and actions. When you reflect critically, you use course material (lectures, readings, discussions, etc.) to examine our biases, compare theories with current actions, search for causes and triggers, and identify problems at their core. Critical reflection is not a reading assignment, a summary of an activity, or an emotional outlet. Rather, the goal is to change your thinking about a subject, and thus change your behaviour.
How to Critically Reflect
Writing a critical reflection happens in two phases.
- Analyze: In the first phase, analyze the issue and your role by asking critical questions. Use free writing as a way to develop good ideas. Don’t worry about organized paragraphs or good grammar at this stage.
- Articulate: In the second phase, use your analysis to develop a clear argument about what you learned. Organize your ideas so they are clear for your reader.
First phase: Analyze
A popular method for analyzing is the three stage model,
What? So What? Now what?
In the What? stage, describe the issue, including your role, observations, and reactions. The what? stage helps you make initial observations about what you feel and think. At this point, there’s no need to look at your course notes or readings.
Use the questions below to guide your writing during this stage.
- What happened?
- What did you do?
- What did you expect?
- What was different?
- What was your reaction?
- What did you learn?
In the second So What? stage, try to understand on a deeper level why the issue is significant or relevant. Use information from your first stage, your course materials (readings, lectures, discussions) -- as well as previous experience and knowledge to help you think through the issue from a variety of perspectives.
Tip: Since you’ll be using more course resources in this step, review your readings and course notes before you begin writing.
Below are three perspectives you can consider:
- Academic perspective : How did the experience enhance your understanding of a concept/theory/skill? Did the experience confirm your understanding or challenge it? Did you identify strengths or gaps in your knowledge?
- Personal perspective: Why does the experience matter? What are the consequences? Were your previous expectations/assumptions confirmed or refuted? What surprised you and why?
- Systems perspective: What were the sources of power and who benefited/who was harmed? What changes would you suggest? How does this experience help you understand the organization or system?
In the third Now what? stage, explore how the experience will shape your future thinking and behaviour.
Use the following questions to guide your thinking and writing:
- What are you going to do as a result of your experiences?
- What will you do differently?
- How will you apply what you learned?
Second phase: Articulate
After completing the analysis stage, you probably have a lot of writing, but it is not yet organized into a coherent story. You need to build an organized and clear argument about what you learned and how you changed. To do so, develop a thesis statement , make an outline , write , and revise.
Develop a thesis statement
Develop a clear argument to help your reader understand what you learned. This argument should pull together different themes from your analysis into a main idea. You can see an example of a thesis statement in the sample reflection essay at the end of this resource.
Make an outline
Once you have a clear thesis statement for your essay, build an outline. Below is a straightforward method to organize your essay.
Write and revise
Time to get writing! Work from your outline and give yourself enough time for a first draft and revisions.
Sample Critical Reflection
Below are sample annotated paragraphs from one student’s critical reflection for a course on society and privilege.
Social Work Reflection
Working with others and improving own learning and performance are highly essential skills in social work. In this essay I will reflect on how well I have developed these two skills and what I need to do to improve them. Before starting the degree course in university, I already had the skill working with others. As I have worked with others who were on the same course as me in the sixth form and also I did voluntary work placement which required people working together. Before starting the university my working with others was sometimes effective and sometimes not very effective depending on the people I worked with, on the topic or area we had to work on. In sixth form I got on well with everybody in my class and working with them was not difficult. For example once me and two other students had to make a PowerPoint presentation on smoking. We worked together in planning what information will be included in the PowerPoint and who will write about what, what other materials we will need such as leaflets and who will get them. So before creating the PowerPoint presentation we planned everything together. Once the PowerPoint was created we then decided the number of slides each of us will read and talk about. So here I worked with others effectively and our PowerPoint presentation was successful. However there have been times where I did not work effectively with others especially on my voluntary work placement. I did voluntary work in a nursery. I enjoyed working with the children there but I did not get on very well with the staff. The staff there did not interact with me as much and most of them usually gave orders to me e.g. to get something. When it came to working with the staff e.g. when getting the snack ready for the ... ... middle of paper ... ...alance my time. For example working for two hours and then spend one hour with friends. This would enable me to get my work done or meet my targets and fullfil other demands. In conclusion I believe that I have developed both skills working with others and improving your own learning and performance. But I need to work on these skills so I can use them in a more effective way; and I also recognise that I will not develop these in a short period of time. I will have to work on the strategies I have mentioned throughout the assignment in order to improve these skills. It may take a long time to make progress in these skills but what I need to remember and implement is the strategies that I have mentioned. Also in this process I will be able to find out whether these strategies work on me or not and if there are other strategies that can help in improving my skills.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that working with others and improving one's learning and performance are essential skills in social work. in this essay, they will reflect on how well they have developed these skills and what they need to improve them.
- Explains that before starting the degree course in university, they already had the skill working with others. they also did voluntary work placement which required people working together.
- Explains how they worked effectively with others before starting the university. in sixth form, they got on well with everyone in their class and their powerpoint presentation was successful.
- Opines that they did not work effectively with others especially on their voluntary work placement. the equity theory says that when people are treated unfairly, they are highly prone to feelings of disaffection and demotivation.
- Opines that their skill of working with others has improved since they started the university. the degree students they worked with were friendly and polite to them, which motivated them to participate in the discussion.
- Opines that their developmental need is to improve their skill of working with others by getting out of their comfort zone and getting to know them better.
- Explains that they sometimes lack knowledge on discussion topics. to address this need, they ask the other people in their group or the lecturer to give them more information on the discussion topic.
- Explains that improving their own learning and performance is a very essential skill to have especially if you are in education.
- Narrates how they bought a mini diary to record their personal targets, reminders, and deadlines to meet when they started the degree course.
- Opines that recording the targets in a diary has helped them improve their learning and performance.
- Explains that sometimes they forget to make the targets in the diary and this leads to not meeting those targets.
- Explains that they will check their diary regularly and note every target or reminder down in order to improve this skill.
- Explains that they also make a timetable for everyday in order to meet their targets or assignment deadlines.
- Explains that having a timetable helps them work on their tasks and wastes less time.
- Explains that their keeping timetable technique isn't always effective, as sometimes they don’t feel like working and cannot concentrate on work and this leads them into wasting their time.
- Explains how they balance their time by working for two hours and spending one hour with friends. this would enable them to get their work done or meet their targets and fulfill other demands.
- Concludes that they have developed both skills working with others and improving their own learning and performance, but they need to work on these skills so they can use them in a more effective way.
- Opines that it may take a long time to make progress in these skills but what they need to remember and implement is the strategies that they have mentioned.
- explanatory
- Explains the purpose of the paper, which is a self-reflection of their life and what events have brought them to choose being social work practitioner.
- Explains that they were raised in the bible belt, where their family consisted of their dad, mom, older brother, sister, and myself. emotional cutoff is found within the 8 concepts of the bowen theory.
- Opines that the framework of strength based practice focuses on strengths, abilities and potential rather than problems, deficits, and pathologies.
- Explains that their family struggled to get through all the tension and anger, but behind closed doors we were barely functioning as a family.
- Explains that a marriage operates by how the spouse is functioning, emotional connection, and influences such as religion. they never talked to their parents about the divorce nor did they ask how they were doing.
- Explains that their childhood shaped their conflict management style of withdrawing. they learned this from their mom.
- Explains that values are a reflection of our moral and ethical self. they must be willing to separate their personal values from their professional obligation to the client.
- Explains that reflective practice is a life-long journey of changes as social work is always changing and evolving.
- Explains that their motivation for being a social worker stems from their husband's military career. the military life is full of struggles, challenges, and emotions.
- Opines that avoiding emotions keeps the distance from the hurt. strength-based theory would allow military service members to focus on a goal and decrease the stresses of military life.
- Opines that self-reflection has given them the opportunity to take a look at their life and critically analyze the events that have shaped them into who they are today.
- Opines that the bowen theory of emotional cutoff is evident in the inherited trait from their mother.
- Describes how their experiences made them an organized person with good planning skill. they opened an online store with their friend in china in 2011 and came to the us for high school.
- Describes the skills required to be a database administrator, including complex problem solving, critical thinking, monitoring, active learning, and listening.
- Explains how they use mind mapping to clarify and organize their thoughts/ideas. they are reading the book "creativity, critical thinking, and communication" to improve their critical thinking skills.
- Opines that problem solving and critical thinking are similar and connected. they plan to volunteer in citizens' climate lobby and apply for a group leader.
- Explains that they plan to take oracle database 12c and mysql database administration classes in august. they also plan on attending the students of information management club in the fall.
- Opines that in order to be a qualified employee and satisfy employer expectation, they should keep learning and improving themselves.
- Describes yutong li as a senior at oregon state university majoring in business information system and business administrative.
- Describes the skills they currently have, including innovative, creative, language skills like chinese, cantonese, and korean, as well as different computer software like statgraphics.
- Explains that they would like to work for oracle corporation, which is one of the largest database companies in the world. they identify critical thinking, problem solving, and oracle-approved certification and training as the most important skills to become a database administrator.
- Explains that social workers need to be empathetic, understanding, and supportive to their clients' needs. building a trusting and lasting relationship with clients in the field of social work defines the true success of the social worker.
- Opines that assisting lorella, a therapist, could experience countertransference. they would see many attributes relating to their friend, that could trigger their own emotions.
- Opines that working with lorella as a new social worker entering the field could be challenging.
- Explains that lorella is an individual who experiences discrimination socially due to her sexuality.
- Opines that social workers need to understand aging, sexual orientation, and gender identity when working with the lbgqt community.
- Recommends strategizing a strategic plan given the client's prior experience receiving therapy, and discussing the importance of confidentiality. being empathetic towards clients reduces one’s aggression towards other individuals.
- Explains the key competencies and strategies for culturally competent practice with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender older adults in the health and human services.
- Explains that they have chosen social work as their core values of compassion, patience, empowering relationships, fair and justness, and challenging the status quo.
- Explains that their father's unwellness was a family known matter, and he was ashamed of the illness and adverse changes in his moods. self-stigmatisation is explained within the modified labelling theory.
- Explains that they worked in corporate leadership for eight years. employees were transparent and honest with their leaders reporting their mental illness. mental illnesses are a prominent contributor to absenteeism and reduced productivity.
- Explains that they belonged to a leadership team where individuals with mental health disorders were too difficult to support in their learning and development. this stigmatisation can shape behavioural and cultural norms.
- Explains that observing people's experiences of stigmatisation from mental illness galvanized them into action. they completed a diploma of community services work, volunteered at the mental illness fellowship queensland, and then studied bachelor of social work.
- Opines that they want to work building meaningful interventions for mental health at the micro and mezzo system junctions.
- Opines that it is important for a social worker to be self-aware of their values and world view, and how this shapes their knowledge on different theoretical perspectives, frameworks, ethical and best practices to support complex decision making.
- Explains that social work is a broad sector that addresses complex interactions of people and their environments, and its moral mission is to bring people out of the margins and into the mainstream.
- Explains that social work is a diverse field and their area of practice may change as they progress through their degree and career. the foundation of their practice is reinforced by their drive to be an agent of change.
- Describes how they attended a training called bridges out of poverty, and effectively living and working within the diverse world, presented by jodi pfarr of minneapolis.
- Opines that they wish that everyone in the social work program would someday have a chance to hear this woman speak.
- Opines that more collaboration needs to happen between agencies. clients are survivors and will tell one agency what they want to hear and tell another agency to receive benefits.
- Explains that social workers have learned in several classes including introduction to social work and generalist practice the roles of a social worker. they are involved as group therapists and task group leaders.
- Explains the importance of diversity in social work and psychology classes. every class brings diversity up because it is important to take diversity into account when working with clients.
- Explains that the second day of training was dedicated to learning about diversity. they created a chart with triangles and discussed the barriers and strength each category may or may not have.
- Explains that in abnormal psychology class, they learned that when doing interviews with clients to try and not ask questions. jodi the presenter discussed her own personal experiences using this method.
- Opines that the training this week was an excellent way to further their goal to develop professional relationships with their coworkers.
- Analyzes how their learning in this course has developed and influenced their perception of what they bring to social work, comparing peer-reviewed journals regarding the gender equity issue, and concluding with learning goals.
- Explains that the course helped them develop their strengths and understanding of social work and the application of its practice. they also became adept at recognizing how their ism of gender interacts on both a macro and micro level.
- Opines that the sowk 101: social work philosophy and ethics course helped in expounding on the idea of humans, society, and each individual's place within being very much developed and "defined" by our interactions.
- Explains the importance of one's social location and how that has influenced and/or affected their position, power, and access to resources in any given society.
- Analyzes how the colonial family structure perpetuates the bias of attributing the domestic sphere to the female, even for those who work full-time outside the home.
- Analyzes how the course helped them understand the political nature of social work practice and its importance in effecting lasting, positive change on a macro level.
- Explains that people's personal experiences help them realize what makes them different from others and stand out from the crowd. the loss of a parent helped them develop academic skills.
- Narrates how they were distraught after losing someone so significant in their life. thoughts flooded their mind and it was hard to think straight, but they needed to continue their academic success.
- Explains that the experience has taught them the skills that help them to strive in everything they do.
- Opines that loyola university would be a good fit for them because of their experience and perseverance.
- Explains that group cohesiveness is the ability to think and act 'as one' if the group is physically together or not.
- Explains that brainstorming is one of the most effective decision makers that they have ever experienced.
- Opines that a group leader must maintain control of the outcome of decisions by being impartial and choosing the best idea.
- Explains that in most jobs, they want their employees to work in groups or teams because they can get more done in a day than if they were working alone.
- Explains how to work with groups and other team members. interdependence is good to have when working with a group.
- Explains that leaders can emerge from groups because they have to be influenced by members from the group.
- Narrates how they worked with a little girl who lost her mother at age 10 and found her house on fire and her mom on the inside.
- Explains that they work as a caseworker in family and community services (facs) based on their experiences from their field placement in the child protection sector and learning obtained during their bachelor of social work degree.
- Explains that social workers in similar organisations are also facing the same barriers due to the government nature of the organisation and the funding guidelines implemented to fund other non-government organisations to assist in delivering child protection services.
- Explains that as a social worker within facs, they will collaborate and discuss with other social workers within the organisation while utilising their social work skills. burton and van den broek (2009) found this collaboration approach to be effective in dealing with quality issues.
- Explains that management have a responsibility to advocate for resources to meet clients' needs. they suggest an approach which champions the ethical values and standards of the social work profession, and takes into account the needs of our clients.
- Argues that working with managers in organisational and policy reforms could be an effective pathway to advocate for social change and social justice.
- Analyzes how managerialist controls were extrapolated onto staff, which refocused workers' priorities away from community services and client support, to bureaucratic rather than professional accountabilities.
- Explains that the loss of several social workers in their team at facs resulted in an increased client workload and managerialist controls being extrapolated onto staff.
- Explains that they have learned a lot about their values, attitudes, and beliefs and feel confident in their growing skills as counsellor. other social work courses have started emphasizing trauma-informed practice.
- Explains that the counsellor is an important tool within a counselling relationship, and how he can impact sessions, in addition to his personal emotional intelligence and literacy. they feel competent enough to make meaningful connections with their clients.
- Explains that they are an individual with strongly defined values that guide both their personal and professional life. they chose social work with the expectation of upholding the code of ethics but were not entirely sure what that would look like in their practice.
- Explains that they have determined what values are most important to them. they recognize that it can be of disservice to their client if they are unable to catch problematic aspects.
- Explains that they uphold secularism and believe that individuals should have religious freedom. they are concerned about how colleagues of faith will work with clients whose beliefs are different from their own.
- Opines that they value themselves in relation to their work, and if they don't practice adequate self-care, they find themselves unable to fully do meaningful work with their clients in sessions.
- Explains that they do not anticipate their experiences or beliefs to act as barriers that hinder their ability to understand, relate, and work with certain clients.
- Explains that while their values inform their social work and counselling practice, they also have some personal strengths that contribute to their work.
- Explains that they are supported by their knowledge of skills, social work knowledge, and past experience.
- Opines that they are aided by their confidence in their skills and comfort in being a counsellor, as they do well in independent work and in one-on-one work with clients.
- Opines that they are satisfied with their counselling progress, but there are a few notable areas in which they can improve.
- Opines that they have a difficult time evaluating themselves as counsellor during sessions, mostly because they focus entirely on the client. they assume that this will come naturally with more practice and further analysis of future sessions.
- Opines that they are satisfied with their improvement as a counsellor throughout this term. they will continue to grow as professionals by building on their strengths, observing their classmates, reading about counselling, and most importantly, through practice sessions.
Related Topics
Social Work Reflective Essay
Show More The first quality that I think is critical in being an effective social worker is empathy. I think to care, and understand the needs of clients, empathy is essential. The second quality is the motivation to help clients with support and guidance. For instance, this involves participating in self-care to better serve clients. I also think that this consists of not giving up on a client, and staying proactive in helping the client change his or her behavior. The third quality that I think is critical is openness to new people and opportunities. There are plenty of people and situations that could occur in social work , therefore social workers should not be narrow minded when interacting with clients or associating with other agencies. The fourth …show more content… For instance, I think being honest and genuine is more effective when helping a client. In addition, I think some clients can see through any fake emotion or expression. I have also admired the strength other social workers possess in the field. For instance, I have not interacted with social workers who appeared to be burned out. I think participating in self-care may have contributed to the lack of burnout that I viewed among social workers. Moreover, I think my greatest strengths are my determination, passion, empathy and being proactive in social work. I think these strengths are essential in social work because of the diversity in the field. For example, for me having determination and passion motivates me to continue to interact with patients or clients. Empathy, I think helps me understand more about myself and others. In addition, for me being proactive opens me to new experiences, and more opportunities in social work. Furthermore, my greatest areas of growth are learning about different resources to assist clients as well as utilizing different intervention strategy. For instance, when a patient asks me about a service I often have to research, or ask someone else, which can be time consuming. In addition, I think learning more about different interventions will help me better assess future clients or
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The importance of reflective practice in social work
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Reflective practice is the ability to constantly monitor one’s own performance in a given role and make adjustments where necessary. For a social worker, reflective practice is particularly important because no two cases will ever be the same and it is vitally important to remain reactive and reflective at all times.
Reflective practice has been demonstrated to have significant benefits when it comes to the delivery of client-centred care, and can help a social worker to ensure that he is able to accurately assess the needs of each client as an individual rather than as a case number to be merely assigned to a particular program of action.
With reflective practice widely regarded as one of the most important elements of modern social work, it is essential that all social work students become familiar with reflective practice methods.
One of the reasons why reflective practice is so important for social workers is that no amount of training can completely prepare a social worker for the requirements of their profession over the course of their entire career.
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For example, the context of a client’s problem in one decade will almost certainly be very different in another, which means that the client will need to have access to a social worker whose particular experience can take into account this new context.
Meanwhile the social worker might be stuck in a set of processes and routines from a decade ago (or further back), which means that the social worker will either be unable to help the client or, worse, will attempt to impose an outdated and ultimately useless set of rules that might even cause more damage than they resolve.
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Reflective practice also helps a social worker to stay abreast of changes to the way that social work practice manifests. Every year there are new theories and new approaches that can, if correctly incorporated into each social worker’s repertoire, result in genuine benefits for the social worker and for clients. New theories are not an automatic route to success or improvement, so it is necessary for the social worker to be selective and to be able to match new developments to their own skills.
In cases where the social worker is able to do this, the result is that new developments in social work theory are able to dramatically improve the social worker’s ability to absorb changes to the social work profession and selectively and constructively improve personal and professional performance in a way that is ongoing and dynamic.
Because of the need to reflect on personal performance and practice, self-reflective practice is strongly linked to the need to be able to develop skills for self criticism. Constructive criticism is established as a means by which a social worker can address personal and professional failings and find ways to deal with them. Since it is widely accepted that no social worker can be entirely perfect, this type of constructive criticism can be used to identify weaknesses and either neutralise them or deal with them.
This can also help the social worker to identify personal strengths. While some social workers regard all forms of criticism, even constructive criticism, as negative and dispiriting, it is generally the case that constructive criticism should be taken as an opportunity to improve rather than simply as an attack on the social worker’s professionalism and skills.
As a form of critical theory, reflective practice is one of the most important parts of modern social work and is the primary means by which any social worker can improve his overall performance. Reflective practice can not only make social work more relevant to the particular needs of each client, it can also genuinely improve the social worker’s understanding of theory and how to apply that theory to practical situations.
In general it is often argued by experts that reflective practice is a strong sign of a social worker (or other professional) who views their job not just as a way of getting paid but as a real vocation, and as a role for which they have a high degree of passion. While this generalisation might not always be true, it does seem to be true that in general reflective practice is a sign of both passion and commitment.
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Critical Reflection plays a significant role in social work, when practicing social work, it is… For full essay go to Edubirdie.Com.
Reflection, and in particular critical reflective practice, forms a key part of this, as social workers are called on to reconsider and
Free Essay: According to Duffy (2016), there are two different types of social work practice when it comes to working alongside a disadvantaged population.
I have learned that many factors come into play in the field of social work, including levels of practice, ethics and critical reflection and self-care.
Practice based on empirical knowledge helps reduce bias, enables workers to study interpretations, perspectives or
Work to uplift the society by helping people, their families and communities by correcting their problems and try to work for their betterment. Social work is a
A Critical Reflection (also called a reflective essay) is a process of identifying, questioning, and assessing our deeply-held assumptions – about our
In this essay, the author · Opines that social workers must take into account their own personal values before they can be an effective worker in this field.
Working with others and improving own learning and performance are highly essential skills in social work. In this essay I will reflect on how well I have.
Free Essay: The first quality that I think is critical in being an effective social worker is empathy. I think to care, and understand the needs of clients
Essay Sample: Reflective practice is the ability to constantly monitor one's own performance in a given role and make adjustments where necessary.