Gary Clapton has recently joined the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer and tutor after years of social work and practice teaching in Edinburgh and London.
Maura Daly is a dedicated practice teacher based with Edinburgh Family Service Unit. Previously, she worked as a local authority social worker in children and families. Both have a long-standing interest in developing student learning.

The new social work degree highlights the importance of integrating theory and practice. Changes in the way that practice teaching is delivered, such as the introduction of learning centres, also make this a good time to re-examine the problem of relating theory and practice.

The problem of blending theory taught in college with practice undertaken on placement was highlighted by Argyris and Schon 30 years ago.(1) One of the results from a recent audit of Scottish practice teaching and learning could have been reported at any time in the period since then. The audit was undertaken as part of the Scotland-wide Learning for Ethical and Effective Practice initiative (Leep) to develop students' readiness to practice. The audit revealed that practice teachers identified a clear gap between the university and fieldwork; and specifically between theory and practice in social work. Practice teachers spoke of "two separate worlds" and were critical of universities' remoteness from the world of practice.(2)

Those of us involved in the Leep initiative set up a project to bridge the gap between field and classroom by placing tutors with students on placement. We decided that tutors (also called academic advisers) would spend one day a week where students were undertaking their practice learning. In all, four tutors joined 27 first placement students in four agencies involving a mix of local authority social work departments and local voluntary organisations.

One agency was the Edinburgh Family Service Unit (FSU) which is part of a UK network. FSUs are non-statutory fieldwork agencies which support children and families in trouble. Edinburgh FSU delivers this service in a deprived area in the north of the city. There were six students of mixed gender and ethnicity. It was their first placement and it ran for three months.

An average day in our project in the Edinburgh FSU included scheduled student group sessions that were co-run by practice teacher and tutor; informal student-tutor chats in the kitchen and over shared lunches; impromptu teaching sessions that properly got to grips with "the competences"; and more formal meetings such as those to review the progress of the placement. A belief that was carried into all the projects was that tutors should take pains not to fill in their day in the placement with obligations and that their doors would be always open. This was achieved at Edinburgh FSU where the tutor hot-desked with part-time social workers.

Thus an atmosphere was created that challenged traditional barriers between college (theory) and placement (practice). Students reported favourably. One said: "I have found the experience of teaching and support beneficial and appreciated the link of theory to practice enabled by the input of an academic adviser from the university."

Practice teachers also praised the initiative. One said: "The student is using all learning opportunities well and is particularly positive about the advantages of having an academic adviser in situ."

An added development that keys into the current emphasis on post-registration training and learning was that during the placements, tutors became involved in organising training and consultancy for social work staff in the service agency.

We have identified a number of benefits arising from our project. These include no more perfunctory placement visits, a win for all involved. Tutor visits are often difficult for many students, practice teachers and tutors, as the tutor struggles to remember the student's name and the practice teacher and student itch to return to placement teaching and learning.

The presence of an on-site tutor provided a better connection to students' placement development in that three-way sessions were focused and briefer. For example, everyone had become acquainted with each other and the student's learning development had been collectively monitored from the beginning of the placement.

Students benefited from the tutor's ability to be an extra in-house resource of specialist knowledge, clarify university requirements and provide ad hoc tutorials. A greater number of students in these initiatives were not asked for additional contributions to their final reports compared with the rest of the student body. The fact that both practice teacher and tutor had similar experiences when it came to writing practice studies and final reports, was a relief for the students.

The FSU benefited in that the tutor became a resource for staff training and development. Training and development events (new developments in child protection, working with fathers) were held with professional and non-professional staff once every three weeks. These sessions were led by the tutor on his weekly day at the agency. As a result agency-university relations have developed and prospered.

Practice teachers felt supported by the presence of a tutor in the same building; someone who shared placement learning tasks and could take the time to discuss in detail what had been taught in university. Knowing exactly what students have covered - and what they have not - is a regular concern of practice teachers.

Tutors gained by updating their practice knowledge. Those involved reported a wealth of new material for lectures and tutorials. In addition, as a result of increased student numbers and static or diminishing staff numbers, tutors developed a working relationship with individual students - usually only one or two tutorials are held in a term.

Ordinarily, tutors do not appear during placements. However, in this case, by working alongside students and getting to know them, the tutors were better able to provide academic guidance during the placement and more focused advice regarding the students' next placement.

Thus this Leep experiment seems to have worked. Not only have other students and practice teachers testified to the benefits of having a tutor on site and the values of group learning, but interest has been awakened throughout the UK. An invitation to speak about the projects has come from the annual conference of the Family Service Units, a visit is scheduled from Northern Ireland and two of the service agencies involved have asked for the project to be repeated. Practice teachers' groups throughout Scotland have also asked for more information and presentations to these are taking place or have been scheduled.

A fuller assessment of all experiences of students, practice teachers and tutors across the projects in Scotland will follow this year, but a last word (until then) should go to a student: "My placement is part of the Leep initiative so we have been fortunate to have an academic adviser at our placement once a week. This has so far proved to be a valuable resource, support mechanism and link to the university."


Abstract
Gary Clapton and Maura Daly discuss an innovative approach to helping students link theory and practice in the field. Placing a tutor in the fieldwork agency alongside students for one day a week during their placement has been successful for everyone involved in the experiment. Students report a better learning experience, practice teacher and tutor worked in unison and both university and agency have seen benefits.

References
(1) C Argyris and D Schon, Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Expertise, Jossey-Bass, 1974
(2) Scottish Institute For Excellence In Social Work Education, Learning for Effective and Ethical Practice: Practice Audit, 2004

Contact the author
Gary Clapton can be contacted on: 0131 650 3903/3915, or e-mail: gary.clapton@ed.ac.uk