Delivering an Effective Fieldwork Program

Developing Fieldwork Coordinator Leadership Capability

Purpose

The purpose of this module is to:• look critically at the Deliverer role through an

academic leadership lens • discover how to enhance your abilities as a

Deliverer of fieldwork education • to improve the quality of your delivery as it relates

to the goal of student learning• potentially create space to build other roles.

Learning objectives and plan

Learning OutcomesAt the end of this session participants will:

• Apply a risk management framework to support workplace-learning programs.

• Identify what structures and processes are needed to deliver an effective workplace learning program.

What is the Deliver role?

What are the features of the deliverer role ?

Ensures things run smoothly

Gets things done

Requires productivity

Is time-consuming

Skill set becomes ingrained

Coping with unexpected events

Can dominate other roles

Quick Activity

Ensuring there are enough placements

Problems that fieldwork coordinators face

• Cooper et al. (2010, p. 166) identified three categories of problems most typically managed by fieldwork coordinators.

• Student’s having personal issues.• Complaints about the workplace.• Student’s behaviour.

• Add any others that are important to the group to this list

Cooper, L., Orell, J., & Bowden, M. (2010). Work Integrated Learning: A guide to effective practice. London: Routledge. Read chapter 7, ‘Managing difficult situations’.

Case study

• You are the coordinator of the fieldwork placement program for a Bachelor of Teaching program. You have been in this role for about 6 months, having taken over from the previous coordinator. In the yearly cycle of clinical placements the 2nd year students are in the 2nd week of their 4 week placement rotations. In your plan for the week you are going to contact the placement supervisors to ensure that the students are meeting the placement requirements. As you are collecting the list of phone numbers you notice an email in your inbox from the Faculty admin officer asking you to call a supervisor running a placement in a large school that takes a large number of placements.

Case study

• Before you can pick up the phone to call you receive a phone call from the Head of School asking you to urgently contact the same site. The Head of School advises you that they received a phone call from a supervisor who had been desperately trying to contact someone from ‘The University’ for a couple of days. The supervisor had advised the Head of School that the university contact people they had on their list were not answering their phones.

Case study

• Having reassured the Head of School that you will deal with it, you call the supervisor. She tells you that she has received a report that one of your students has been acting inappropriately with a Year 12 male school student. She feels that the behaviour has exceeded the boundaries of acceptable professional conduct.

Managing this problemCovey’s Four Quadrants

Transactional versus Transformational Leadership

Transactional Transformational

Getting the job done Finds a solution quickly to

ensure the site and you know

how to handle the student and

the future of the placement is

determined.

Builds on the need for

meaning

Sees this situation in the

broader context of managing a

fieldwork program and how

this reflects on the overall

success of the program

Swamped in daily affairs Responds to the phone call as

it comes in, adds this situation

to the list of activities that need

to be dealt with. Drops other

activities off in response to the

time taken to manage this

situation

Transcends daily affairs Recognises the frequency with

which these activities occur

and the pattern of response. Is

able to build into schedule time

for managing these scenarios

and has a plan for responding.

Confuses causes and

symptoms and is concerned

with treatment

Focuses on finding a solution

that will meet the demands of

the individuals in the situation

Separates causes and

symptoms and work

prevention

Analyses the situation to see

what has happened, why it has

happened and can implement

strategies that deal with

underlying problems

Transactional versus Transformational Leadership

Transactional Transformational

Relies on human relations to

oil human interactions

Uses skills in liaising with

students, head of school and

partners to calm the situation

and reassure everyone that

you will find a solution

Makes full use of human

resources

Identifies the opportunities

for the empowerment of

others in the situation to

assist in the problem solving.

Knows who key people are

who can advise with difficult

situations.

Follows and fulfils role of

expectations by striving to

work effectively within

current system

Refers to current processes

and policies for appropriate

response.

Designs and re-designs jobs

to achieve over-arching

goals

Recognises that certain

processes were not working

effectively and designs

processes and policies to

guide future practice.

Working in the quadrant of quality and personal leadership

• For our case study (Worksheet 2): 1. How does this situation reflect on the overall

management of the fieldwork program?2. How often do situations like this occur? Is it likely

to happen again?3. What might be the causes of this situation?4. Who is impacted by this situation and who can

assist in the solution?

Analysing issues that arise

“The issue” Student’s

conduct on placement

Causes

Are you jumping to solutions ……

Using risk analysis choose actions

Worksheet 31. Who are the stakeholders and whose needs

are the most vulnerable in this situation?2. What were the risks in this scenario?3. For each risk what is the likelihood of a

problem occurring and its potential impact on the participants in the program?

Risk analysis for fieldwork education

Stakeholder

Category of risk

Student Partner Fieldwork

coordinator

University Client/service user

Health, safety and

environment

Physical, emotional

and mental health

Health and well-

being of employees

Own well-being Health and well-

being of employees

Physical, emotional

and mental health

Values, Ethics and Institutional Reputation

Codes of conductFuture work opportunitiesRights as a student

Reputation as a service provider, relationship with partnersDuty of care to clients and students

Personal values, professional codes of conductDuty of care to student

Reputation as an educational institution, relationship with partnersDuty of care to students

Rights as a receiver of services

Business Continuity

Ability to secure placements to complete education

Ability to provide service

Ability to provide fieldwork education program

Ability to provide courses

Access to services

Quality Quality of education Quality of service Quality of student education

Quality of student education

Quality of service received

Financial Cost of attending placement

Costs of students to business

Performance management

Costs of running program

Costs of receiving service

Compliance - legal and statutory requirements

Police checksImmunisationStudent registrationCommon law

Agreements Statutory and Common law

Agreements Statutory and Common law

Statutory and Common law

Statutory and Common law

Exploring risk and potential impact

• “The issue” Student’s

conduct on placement

• Causes

Risk and Impact

Planning actions to address issues

Brainstorming and sorting

actions

Making it happen

Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Key placement management activities

Visits and calls to students on placement

• Use a Gantt chart to plot planned activities.• Identify peaks and troughs in your workload that

will affect your capacity to work on planned activities.• Choose priorities based on goals.

So what?

• What might be an action for you as an outcome of this module?

Recommended reading

• Cooper, L., Orell, J., & Bowden, M. (2010). Work Integrated Learning: A guide to effective practice. London: Routledge. Read chapter 7, ‘Managing difficult situations’.

• Covey, S. (1994). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Provo, Utah: Covey Leadership Center.