Question

In what areas of your learning do you want and welcome feedback from your field instructor?

In what areas of performance are you overly sensitive or hesitant about receiving feedback from your field instructor? What might these feelings be telling you?

Are you afraid of anything related to your practicum? What is a positive way of dealing with these fears?

It has been said that people often avoid the experiences they need most in order to learn and grow personally. Are you avoiding any practicum experiences? How can you gain these experiences in spite of your reservations?

Your submission should be four paragraphs in length.

Answer 1

Learning is process of acquiring knowledge or skill. It is transformation process where unfamiliar concepts become familiar to perform necessary tasks. Feedback assesses our level of learning and suggests any correction or improvement if required. Feedback is essential part of any learning process. Example: Suggestions provided by field instructor to student of social-wok on effective communication with community people. Feedback is essential to have a check on areas of learning like communication, effective usage of resources, techniques on finding right beneficiaries, fundraising skills, etc.

In the fieldwork, performance needs to be monitored and feedback in the form of suggestions should be given for acquiring good knowledge about practical work in real field rather than learning in classroom. There should be no such hesitation on receiving feedback from field instructor, however, hesitation may exist about suggestions which hinder our independence on decision making for minor things. An individual should develop decision making skill (for minor activities) independently through reasoning and analogy in the field work rather than depending on instructor's feedback.

Practicum serves as essence of entire course. It is application of theory studied in the classroom. In the practicum, we learn more about field reality and difficulties applying the theory in field. Confidence level will be increased in practical sessions, where we will get actual working knowledge of theoretical concepts and learning will be permanent. There is no reason afraid of practicum. It is an opportunity to learn and get ready for real world issues. This gives taste of real world difficulties and makes us gain knowledge on dealing with these issues. There may be some fear in initial stages of practicum. These fears can be dealt positively through guidance and suggestions provided by field instructors. Also sharing the experience in peer group and having a group discussion about the experience result in eradicating all the fear associated with practicum.

There may be some scenario where individual avoids practical work due to fear of negative feedback. It should be noted that experience may be negative or positive, it is an experience which makes us strong and helps us to solve real world problems in the future. Avoiding field experiences will result in incomplete knowledge and incompetence in future work. By considering the field work as stepping stone for our future real world success, we need to participate in all practical sessions and maximize our knowledge. By developing sense of pride while working in practical work, we can gain more experiences in spite of our reservations.