Field Directors

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  • 1.  Field Evaluation Ideas?

    Posted 25 days ago

    Hello all!

    Our program is going to be revising our Field Evaluation as a part of our process of moving to the 2022 EPAS. One of the areas that we are hoping to address in the new Field Evaluation is a way to encourage honest and constructive self-assessment as well as feedback from supervisors. Our current instrument is Pass/Fail but we find that because of how the ratings translate into what is a passing versus what is a failing evaluation, supervisors sometimes struggle to provide nuanced feedback about areas that students need to grow even if they are demonstrating the practice behavior at a "passing" level. 

    I would welcome any thoughts about ways you have designed your Field Evaluation to both measure actual and demonstrated practice to assess if a student is truly passing while leaving enough nuance to foster those conversations about continued growth (without fear of receiving a failing grade). We really want to design our tool to encourage reflection and a focus on lifelong learning.

    In Community,

    Amanda



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    Amanda Campbell
    Associate Director of Field Education
    Metropolitan State University of Denver
    +1 (303) 615-1835
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  • 2.  RE: Field Evaluation Ideas?

    Posted 24 days ago

    Hi Amanda,

    We do not allow our field instructors to "grade" our students.  We have them complete a field evaluation (likert scale from 1-5, plus comments) and an assessment on professional readiness but our faculty makes the final determination on a student's grade.   Our seminar course and internship is combined---and the whole thing is a pass/no credit class.  They are graded on assignments such as process recordings, reflection logs, case presentations, and participation-----and they receive a letter grade/points.  They still have to obtain a B- or better to pass the course---but we make it so a student has to pass both seminar and practicum in order to pass-----the assignments don't equal more than 60 points and, mid-semester evaluation is 10 points, and final field evaluation is worth 30....if the student is terminated from their field placement, they automatically fail the course and have to retake. If they do really well at internship, but don't achieve a B- or better in Seminar, then they fail the course.  Hope this helps! 

    Staci

    fattore@rowan.edu



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    Staci Fattore, LCSW
    Field Education Director
    Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ
    fattore@rowan.edu
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  • 3.  RE: Field Evaluation Ideas?

    Posted 22 days ago

    Hi Amanda, we also did a revamp of our evaluation form last year in transition to the 2022 EPAS. We really wanted to emphasize to our field supervisors that we wanted them to be thinking about evaluating the competency and practice behaviors based on the activities rather than whether or not the student completed the learning contract activity. I think so often the learning contract is treated as a checklist. Our updated evaluation form can be seen here. It is completed in Tevera, but this is a pdf of what it looks like. We gave the students space to address whether or not they completed the task, and then ask both students and supervisors to evaluate competency emphasizing this is based on completion of the activity, or some other activity that was observed and demonstrated competency.

    Similar to what Staci stated, our field courses are graded pass/fail, and the evaluation from supervisors is a factor in students passing, but the grade is determined by the instructor, based upon the evaluation, as well as getting 80% of all points for the assignments. We have a policy where we expect students to have an average score across competencies of 2.5 in their midterm assessment, and if not, this requires an additional check in meeting with the student and field supervisor to assess how things are going. By the final, we generally expect all students to have a minimum score of 3 in each area of their evaluation, but we tell supervisors that if they anticipate students not being at that point, to tell us as early as possible so we can try to problem solve. It is also ultimately at the discretion of our instructors to issue the grade if for some reason we believe the evaluation is not a true assessment.

    This is always a challenge and leaves a lot of room for subjectivity. We just developed a new training for our field supervisors about the new evaluation and also strategies for observing, evaluating, and giving feedback. We included activities for supervisors to look at case examples of students and determine in small groups the rating they would give students. We've only put the training on once so far, but it seemed to be well received. It did illustrate though how differently different supervisors evaluate, additionally, in our research for the presentation it was clear the limited research into effectiveness of supervisor evaluations. I'm happy to share info from our training presentation if you are interested. Ultimately, our new evaluation and this training are our attempt to address the challenge you are describing. Whether or not these efforts are effective, I am still assessing as this is the first year we are using this new form!

    Best,



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    Lindsey Rinehart
    Field Education Director
    West Virginia University
    Morgantown WV
    304-293-3501
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  • 4.  RE: Field Evaluation Ideas?

    Posted 22 days ago

    Hello Amanda, 

    Our field committee, here at EWU, is working on this task this year as well. I appreciate the responses and tools people have provided already and would be interested in hearing from others on this topic too. The idea of having students self-assess is also one we would like to adopt, along with site supervisor's rationale for their scoring. I also want to work the four dimensions of learning, practice, and performance (knowledge, values, skills, and cognitive/affective processes) into the evaluation. If anyone else is willing to share how they evaluate student performance in field, we would greatly appreciate it here in eastern Washington!

    Thank you so much for your time and expertise!

    Best, 



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    Sarah Featherly
    Director of Field Education
    Eastern Washington University
    509.359.6482
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