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Contents

1. Key Information

2. Introduction to the Module

3. Intended Learning Outcomes

4. Outline Delivery......

4.1 Attendance Requirements

5. Assessment

6. How is My Work Marked?...... 7

7. Assessment Criteria and Marking Standards

8. Assessment Offences...... 15

9. Learning Resources

9.1. Library

9.2. Other Resources

10. Module Evaluation

11. Report on Last Delivery of Module

1. Key Information

Module: Social Work Theories and their Application to Practice

Module Leader:Peter Scourfield, Webb 116, Cambridge.

0845 196 2561

Module tutor (Chelmsford)

Jas Sangha, William Harvey Building, 3rd Floor

0845 196 4861

Module tutor (Peterborough)

Pat Curtis

Guild House

Every module has a Module Definition Form (MDF) which is the officially validated record of the module. You can access the MDF for this module in three ways via:

  • the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
  • the My.Anglia Module Catalogue at
  • Anglia Ruskin’s module search engine facility at

All modules delivered by AngliaRuskinUniversity at its main campuses in the UK and at Associate Colleges throughout the UK and overseas are governed by the Academic Regulations. You can view these at A printed extract of the Academic Regulations, known as the Assessment Regulations, is available for every student from your Faculty Office (all new students will have received a copy as part of their welcome pack).

In the unlikely event of any discrepancy between the Academic Regulations and any other publication, including this module guide, the Academic Regulations, as the definitive document, take precedence over all other publications and will be applied in all cases.

2. Introduction to the Module

This module has four main components all of which are designed to fit together to provide a basic foundation for observing, reflecting on and understanding social work practice in a variety of settings. Firstly, building on the concept of the reflective practitioner, students will be introduced to key theory and concepts relating to communication in its different forms and how these might be used in practice situations. Secondly, students will be introduced to both a selection of key theories and concepts relating to human development and to social work generally in social work generally in order that these might provide theoretical underpinning for different social work interventions Thirdly, this module will also provide students with an opportunity to develop their observational skills and apply relevant theories, so that they can better interpret the practice and behaviour they have seen.

Service User Statement for All Modules / Programmes

Understanding the perspectives of service users and their carers is central to the development of health care professionals studying on our programmes.Evidence exists to demonstrate that the involvement of service users and their carers in the education of health care and social work students has had a positive impact in three key areas:

  • Students’ understanding of the service user / carer perspective,
  • Students’ communication skills
  • Students’ motivation to improve services (Morgan and Jones 2007).

The Faculty of Health and Social Care and Education is committed to the involvement of service users and carers in the education of our health care and social work students.This module will provide the opportunity to engage with the experiences and perspectives of service users and their carers.

3. Intended Learning Outcomes

This module is taught on the basis of the learning outcomes published below. The learning outcomes are statements of what you should have learnt by the time you come to the end of the module. To successfully complete the module, that is to pass it, you will need to demonstrate that you have met all of the learning outcomes. The assessment task for the module is designed to help you do this.

On successful completion of this module you will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding / 1. Demonstrate knowledge of key social work theories,methods and models
2. Apply social work theories, methods and models to practical situations appropriate to social work practice.
Intellectual, practical, affective and transferable skills / 3. Demonstrate the ability to use a reflective model to explore understanding of the professional self.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of communication skills, including verbal and non-verbal skills.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the principles and practice skills of observation.

4. Outline Delivery

The following is a broad outline of what topics will be covered over the semester. However, there will inevitably be slight variations according to the teaching style, specific knowledge and background of the different lecturers on different campuses. The dates refer to Cambridge and Chelmsford sites, Peterborough may vary.

WK / Date (2013)
All sessions are 1-4pm / Indicative Content
1 / 31st January / Introduction to the Module
Concept of theories, models and methods
Understanding Human Growth and Development
Beginning to communicate
Reflection and Observational Skills
2 / 7th February / Developing Communication Skills I
Starting, progressing and ending relationships
Empathy and authority
Verbal and non-verbal communication
Active Listening
Barriers to communication
3 / 14th February / Developing Communication Skills II
Written communication
Genograms, ecomaps, culturegrams
4 / 21st February / Introduction to Human Growth and Development I
Psychodynamic (Attachment)
Transition and loss across the lifecourse
5 / 28th February / Introduction to Human Growth and Development II
Humanism (Maslow, Rogers)
Erikson
Behaviourism (Social learning theory, CBT)
6 / 7th March / Theories, models and methods I
Systems theory
Ecological theory
7 / 14th March / Theories, models and methods II
Strengths Perspective
Empowerment
The service user voice
8 / 21st March / Theories, models and methods III
Task centred
Solution focused
Crisis intervention
Easter Break
9 / 18th April / Preparation for the Observational Video
Observation and observation skills
Reflective models
10 / 25th April / Observational Video
Watching video and group exercise
11 / 2nd May / Module Consolidation
Recap week
12 / 9th May / Assignment Tutorials
13th May / Assignment hand in

4.1Attendance Requirements

Attending all your classes is very important and one of the best ways to help you succeed in this module. In accordance with the Student Charter, you are expected to arrive on time and take an active part in all your timetabled classes. If you are unable to attend a class for a valid reason (eg: illness), please contact your Module Tutor/ Practice Team

Anglia Ruskin will closely monitor the attendance of all studentsand will contact you by e-mail if you have been absent without notice for two weeks. Continued absence can result in various consequences including the termination of your registration as you will be considered to have withdrawn from your studies.

International students who are non-EEA nationals and in possession of entryclearance/leave to remain as a student (student visa) are required to bein regular attendance at Anglia Ruskin. Failure to do so is considered tobe a breach of national immigration regulations. Anglia Ruskin, like all British Universities,is statutorily obliged to inform the UK Border Agency of the Home Office of significant unauthorised absences by any student visa holders.

5.Assessment

5.1

Guidelines for Assessment

This assessment is a Patchwork Text (see appendix) consisting of 4 ‘patches’ which, together, should not exceed 6,000 words. Try to give equal weight to patches 1-3 (e.g. about 1,700 words. Patch 4 need not be as long as the other three.

Patch 1

Communication. Explain the importance of good communication skills in social work. Outline why it is important to understand different types of communication. Lastly, discuss barriers to communication that might exist between social workers and service users and suggest ways or methods of overcoming these barriers in practice. Support your discussion with evidence of relevant reading.

Patch 2

Choose two key theories, one from human development (e.g. ‘attachment’ or ‘loss’) and one from social work theories/models/interventions (e.g. ‘strengths perspective’, ‘task-centred approach’ or ‘systems theory’). For each, using references to support your discussion, outline key aspects of the theory and explain how that theory might be applied appropriately to a practice situation.

Patch 3

Observation. Briefly explain the principles of good observation in social work. From the video of a social work situation discuss your observations in line with the specific guidelines provided.

Patch 4

‘Stitching it all together’. Reflect on what you believe are the key concepts/points of learning from patches 1, 2 and 3, that assist your professional development as a social worker. In particular, how has what you have learned help you, as a social worker, work effectively with service users?

Exceeding the word limit will result in a loss of marks – see Academic Regulations.

All coursework assignments and other forms of assessment must be submitted by the published deadline which is detailed below. It is your responsibility to know when work is due to be submitted – ignorance of the deadline date will not be accepted as a reason for late or non-submission.

The assignment hand-in date is 13th May 2013

You are required to submit your final assignment via Turnitin GradeMark

For this module you are required to submit your summative assessment (for your written assignment) via GradeMark.

To check your draft (formative) assignment there will be a class section called ‘Check Originality Report’ (COR) set up in your Turnitin account. You will be able to submit to the Check Originality Report section as many times as you wish and it will be available throughout your studies. This resource is also a useful tool to share with your module leader or tutor. You can download your originality report as a PDF file and email it to your tutor, print the originality report and bring it to the tutorial, or log into Turnitin whilst in the tutorial to show and discuss your work.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

YOU ONLY HAVE ONE OPPORTUNITY TO SUBMIT YOUR SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO YOUR MODULE CLASS.

On the class page is the start date, the due date and time for your assignment and the date that your results will be available.Please remember that you must submit your assignment before the cut off time on your due date, leaving submission to the last minute is not recommended. This time is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) adjusted for daylight savings, so please work out, in advance, your local time difference.

If you upload your draft work by mistake to your summative module class, this will not be removed. If you submit your summative assessment to the COR class, it will viewed as a non-submission and recorded as a fail. Neither are subject to mitigation or academic appeal.

If you are not successful in your first attempt and are required to resubmit, any subsequent submissions are also to be electronically submitted via Turnitin GradeMark and a new assignment class will be set up for you to use.

More detailed information on using Turnitin Grademark isavailable on the Faculty’s VLE, at

All student work which contributes to the eventual outcome of the module (i.e.: if it determines whether you will pass or fail the module and counts towards the mark you achieve for the module) is submitted either via the iCentre using the formal submission sheet, or electronically by up loading a file, or face to face following a presentation (this is not an exhaustive list please check with your module leader for local variation). Academic staff CANNOT accept work directly from you.

Any late work submitted (after 5pm GMT) in person, electronicallyor by post will NOT be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment task in question. Any work submitted to the wrong section of Turnitin GradeMark will ALSO be seen as a non submission and be given a mark of zero.

You are requested to keep a copy of your work.

Feedback

You are entitled to feedback on your performance for all your assessed work. For all assessment tasks which are not examinations, this is provided by a member of academic staff completing eitherthe assignment coversheet or electronicallyon which your mark and feedback will relate to the achievement of the module’s intended learning outcomes and the assessment criteria you were given for the task when it was first issued.

Examination scripts are retained by Anglia Ruskin and are not returned to students. However, you are entitled to feedback on your performance in an examination and may request a meeting with the Module Leader or Tutor to see your examination script and to discuss your performance.

Anglia Ruskin is committed to providing you with feedback on all assessed work within 20 working days of the submission deadline or the date of an examination. This is extended to 30 days for feedback for a Major Project module (please note that working days excludes those days when AngliaRuskinUniversity is officially closed; eg: between Christmas and New Year). Personal tutors will offer to read feedback from several modules and help you to address any common themes that may be emerging.

At the main AngliaRuskinUniversity campuses, each Faculty will publish details of the arrangement for the return of your assessed work (eg: a marked essay or case study etc.). Any work which is not collected by you from the Faculty within this timeframe is returned to the iCentres from where you can subsequently collect it. The iCentres retain student work for a specified period prior to its disposal. If you are submitting via Turnitin GradeMark, then your essay, mark, and markers comment will stay within your account for one academic year.

On occasion, you will receive feedback and marks for pieces of work that you completed in the earlier stages of the module. We provide you with this feedback as part of the learning experience and to help you prepare for other assessment tasks that you have still to complete. It is important to note that, in these cases, the marks for these pieces of work are unconfirmed. This means that, potentially, marks can change, in either direction!

Marks for modules and individual pieces of work become confirmed on the Dates for the Official Publication of Results which can be checked at

6. How is My Work Marked?

After you have handed your work in or you have completed an examination, Anglia Ruskin undertakes a series of activities to assure that our marking processes are comparable with those employed at other universities in the UK and that your work has been marked fairly and honestly. These include:

  • Anonymous marking – your name is not attached to your work so, at the point of marking, the lecturer does not know whose work he/she is considering. When you undertake an assessment task where your identity is known (e.g.: a presentation or Major Project), it is marked by more than one lecturer (known as double marking)
  • Internal moderation – a sample of all work for each assessment task in each module is moderated by other Anglia Ruskin staff to check the marking standards and consistency of the marking
  • External moderation – a sample of student work for all modules is moderated by external examiners – experienced academic staff from other universities (and sometimes practitioners who representrelevant professions) - who scrutinise your work and provide Anglia Ruskin academic staff with feedback, advice and assurance that the marking of your work is comparable to that in other UK universities. Many of Anglia Ruskin’s staff act as external examiners at other universities.
  • Departmental Assessment Panel (DAP) – performance by all students on all modules is discussed and approved at the appropriate DAPs which are attended by all relevant Module Leaders and external examiners. Anglia Ruskin has over 25 DAPs to cover all the different subjects we teach.

This module falls within the remit of the FHSCE DAP. The following external examiners are appointed to this DAP and will oversee the assessment of this and other modules within the DAP’s remit:

External Examiner’s Name / Academic Institution / Position or Employer
Paul Hollingdale / University of Huddersfield / Senior Lecturer

The abovelist is correct at the time of publication. However, external examiners are appointed at various points throughout the year. An up-to-date list of external examiners is available to internal browsers only at Ruskin’smarking process is represented in the flowchart below:

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7. Assessment Criteria and Marking Standards

ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY GENERIC ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND MARKING STANDARDS

LEVEL 4 (was level 1)

Level 4 introduces students to HE. Students are expected to demonstrate relevant skills and competencies; to be articulate in expressing ideas orally; and to be coherent and structured in terms of written or other media. Forms of expression at this level may be descriptive or imitative, but students are expected to demonstrate an increasing understanding of the theoretical background of their study and the analytic competence to explore it, as well as its relationship, where appropriate, to particular skills. Students are expected to develop an awareness of strengths and weaknesses in their skill sets
Mark Bands / Outcome / Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) (Academic Regulations, Section 2)
Knowledge & Understanding / Intellectual (thinking), Practical, Affective and Transferable Skills
Characteristics of Student Achievement by Marking Band / 90-100% / Achieves module outcome(s) related to GLO at this level / Exceptional information base exploring and analysing the discipline, its theory and ethical issues with extraordinary originality. / Exceptional management of learning resources, complemented by assured self-direction/exploration. Exceptional structure/accurate expression. Demonstrates intellectual originality and imagination. Exceptional practical/professional skills.
80-89% / Outstanding information base exploring and analysing the discipline, its theory and ethical issues with clear originality / Outstanding management of learning resources, complemented by assured self-direction/exploration. An exemplar of structured/accurate expression. Demonstrates intellectual originality and imagination. Outstanding practical/professional skills
70-79% / Excellent information base, exploring and analysing the discipline, its theory and ethical issues with considerable originality. / Excellent management of learning resources, complemented by self-direction/exploration. Structured/ accurate expression. Very good academic/intellectual and team/practical/professional skills
60-69% / Good information base; explores and analyses the discipline, its theory and ethical issues with some originality / Good management of learning resources with some self-direction. Structured and mainly accurate expression. Good academic/intellectual skills and team/practical/ professional skills
50-59% / Satisfactory information base that begins to explore and analyse the discipline and its ethical issues but is still mainly imitative / Satisfactory use of learning resources and input to team work. Some lack of structure/accuracy in expression. Acceptable academic/intellectual skills and satisfactory practical/professional skills
40-49% / A marginal pass in module outcome(s) related to GLO at this level / Basic information base; omissions in understanding of major/ethical issues. Largely imitative / Basic use of learning resources with no self-direction. Some input to team work. Some difficulty with structure and accuracy in expression. Some difficulties with academic/intellectual skills and developing practical/ professional skills
30-39% / A marginal fail in module outcome(s) related to GLO at this level. Possible compensation. Sat-isfies qualifying mark / Limited information base; limited understanding of discipline and its ethical dimension / Limited use of learning resources. No self-direction, little input to team work and difficulty with structure/accuracy in expression. Weak academic/intellectual skills. Practical/professional skills are not yet secure
20-29% / Fails to achieve module outcome(s) related to this GLO. Qualifying mark not satisfied. No compensation available / Little evidence of an information base. Little evidence of understanding of discipline and its ethical dimension. / Little evidence of use of learning resources. No self-direction, with little evidence of contribution to team work. Very weak academic/intellectual skills and significant difficulties with structure/expression. Little evidence of practical/professional skills
10-19% / Inadequate information base. Inadequate understanding of discipline and its ethical dimension. / Inadequate use of learning resources. No attempt at self-direction with inadequate contribution to team work. Very weak academic/intellectual skills and major difficulty with structure/expression. Inadequate practical/professional skills
1-9% / No evidence of any information base. No understanding of discipline and its ethical dimension. / No evidence of use of learning resources of understanding of self-direction with no evidence of contribution to team work. No evidence academic/intellectual skills and incoherent structure/ expression. No evidence of practical/ professional skills
0% / Awarded for: (i) non-submission; (ii) dangerous practice and; (iii) in situations where the student fails to address the assignment brief (e.g.: answers the wrong question) and/or related learning outcomes

8. Assessment Offences