2.3.2.    The Writing of Learning Contract

            Learning contract has long been a feature in the field training programme of the social work courses offered by this Department (Diploma in Social Work Programme in the past and the degree programme at present). In the first placement, students may require substantial input from their fieldwork instructors to formulate the learning contract as they will have little idea about this mode of learning. Guidelines are therefore provided here to help fieldwork instructors to pursue this task with their students:

(1)        Formulating a learning contract involves a process which begins at the pre-placement period when the nature of practice setting and the placement agency are known to students. At this point, many students will have some crude notions of the kind of practice tasks potentially available to them. They may have some vague ideas about the kind of practical issues faced by practitioners in this kind of practice setting or more specifically in that placement agency.

(2)        After paying pre-placement visits to the placement agency, the fieldwork instructor will have some concrete ideas about the learning opportunities available, and the kind of practical considerations his/her student needs to take into account in selecting practice tasks for the placement. The information will then be disseminated to the student at the student orientation programme if time permits, or afterwards.

(3)        During the week leading to the first day of the placement, students should begin to formulate their initial ideas for the learning contract. The guidelines appeared in Appendix 5.7 identify the kind of issues to be considered:  learning objectives to be attained, structured tasks which every student has to undertake, practice assignments and other learning opportunities potentially available to students. Even at this point, students may wish to put down their ideas in an initial draft of the learning contract before they enter the placement. The draft will then serve as a point of reference for students to explore their placement agency in the first two weeks of the placement.

(4)        The learning contract provides a focus for structuring the first supervision session. Fieldwork instructors should help their students to clarify the learning objectives set and the kind of learning activities they wish to have in the placement. It is likely that students have only vague ideas about their learning needs. Fieldwork instructors should help them to explore their learning needs and what sort of learning opportunities they look for.  

            (a)        Ask students to state what they wish to learn from this placement. Help them to state their learning needs in a concrete manner.

            (b)        Ask students how they come to identify these learning needs. In what way are these learning needs meaningful to them?

            (c)        Ask students to brainstorm the kind of practice tasks they wish to undertake, and which they think are meeting the needs of the client population served by the placement agency.

(5)        Apart from clarifying the learning needs as well as exploring the type of practice tasks students have in mind, fieldwork instructors should also negotiate with their students on how the teaching-learning process will be structured and the responsibilities each party will take up. The following issues should be examined: the use of supervision; the use of recording; matching between teaching and learning styles; the use of alternative modes of supervision (group supervision, live supervision, use of video feedback); student’s need for guidance and how guidance would be rendered; basis for giving feedback and how feedback would be given, received, and acted on by the student.

(6)        At the end of Week 2, after students have completed the structured task of preparing “Background Study” reports (refer to section 2.1), they will be able to revise the draft learning contract to clearly identify the practice tasks they are going to take up, what they expect to learn by undertaking these practice tasks, what sort of self-study they will pursue to equip themselves for these learning tasks, what sort of help they will need from their fieldwork instructor. This revised learning contract will then provide a basis for planning students’ learning experiences in the weeks to come and for monitoring students' progress in the placement.

(7)        The learning contract will be reviewed again as part of the mid-placement evaluation exercise: as a basis for charting the progress made by the student in the first half of the placement, to review the teaching-learning process, and to revise the practice assignment if necessary. 

(8)        The learning contracts, both in its draft as well as in its final forms, should be included as part of a student’s portfolio in order to furnish evidence on the student's ability to develop work plan and manage time use. However, the learning contract will not furnish as a basis for the final assessment of the student’s performance in the placement.

            In the second placement, students are becoming more familiar with welfare agencies and their services in general. Also with the experiences derived from the first placement, they will know what they want to learn or pursue. Therefore, with some guidance, students should be able to formulate the learning contract after discussion with their fieldwork instructors. It is expected that the learning contract will be completed within the sixth week of the second placement.