Reliable and valid methods to evaluate student competence are needed in social work education, and practice examinations with standardized clients may hold promise for social work. The authors conducted a critical appraisal of standardized client simulations used in social work education to assess their effectiveness for teaching and for…

Although a growing literature examines competencies in clinical practice, competencies of students in macro social work practice have received comparatively little attention. A grounded-theory methodology was used to elicit field instructor views of student competencies in community, organization, and policy contexts. Competencies described by…

The development of standardized, valid, and reliable methods for assessment of students' practice competence continues to be a challenge for social work educators. In this study, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), originally used in medicine to assess performance through simulated interviews, was adapted for social work to…

While the move to anchored scales has been an improvement in the standardization of field performance evaluation, these tools have not been found to consistently discriminate among student performances or identify students experiencing clinical difficulties. This article presents two efforts to redress this problem. The use of a new practice-based…

This exploratory qualitative study elicited the complex constructs underlying experienced field instructors' perspectives about competence. Eighteen experienced field instructors were asked to describe exemplary and problematic students, as well as student performance on 7 core dimensions. Themes that emerged revealed the importance that field…

Examined the reliability and validity of a measure to evaluate social work students' field performance. Results demonstrated a consistent factor structure with excellent internal consistency; however, there was inadequate consistency between ratings of individual students in their first and second field education experiences. Scores wee…

A study found that students having problems in a graduate social-work program are more likely to be older, be male, have lower undergraduate grades, have more experience in social service-related work, and be rated lower in emotional maturity based on personal statements. Implications for provision of support for such students are discussed.…