Delivering an Effective Fieldwork Program Developing Fieldwork Coordinator Leadership Capability
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.