Key words
Interpersonal skills and methods
Objectives
At the ‘coal face’ of his profession, a remedial educationalist is constantly confronted with challenging situations and questions (or cries for help!) from the person seeking help and his acquaintances, in which he and his team will have to decide how best to
proceed.
To make prudent choices, it’s imperative that he forges a working relationship, from within which he can observe the situation, as it unfolds, analyze it and confer with others about it.
Within that working relationship (with his team and the person seeking help), he systematically organizes the kind(s) of social assistance which are needed. This requires a clear grasp, firstly, of the process of social and community work and, secondly, of the complexity of the communication set-up within a human-social network.
Furthermore, it’s imperative that he, in consultation with his team-mates, is able to objectively assess the choices he’s made and how well they were put into practice. In this way he’s able to fine-tune his way of working, as and when needed.
The aim of this training module is to provide the essential building blocks for acquiring these wide-ranging skills. The student can then master these skills and concepts through drill and practice.
The purpose of this training module is to shape these objectives by fostering and developing the following core skills from the training profile:
- Drawing upon his/(her) individual character (and well-founded theoretically), the student displays professional competence in a critical, communicative and creative way.
o The capacity to purposefully apply strong communication skills in his/her vocational practice.
- Drawing upon their professional attitude, to give a tailor-made answer (both verbal and non-verbal) to the customer’s pleas for help.
- Their reasoning is logical, correct and wide-ranging.
o Makes sufficient and correct use of the relevant conceptual frameworks.
- Has the capacity to objectively assess their own functional performance.
This training module is scheduled in the first 6-month term of standard educational route 1 because it focuses on developing the student’s outlook on his profession and some theoretical building blocks. The practical aspects are then elaborated in the training module ‘Remedial and Special Education in Practice: 2’. On standard educational route 2, this training module (Interpersonal Skills) can serve as a foundation course for other modules, e.g. ‘People skills in remedial and special education’, ‘Working in, and with, groups: 1 and 2’, ‘Families in motion’, ‘Remedial and special education: 1 and 2’ and ‘Work placement: 1’. On standard educational route 3, we see a link with the following modules: ‘Consultative models’, ‘Reference frameworks in remedial and special education’ and ‘Work placement 2’.
Topics
The process of social and community work:
- description and characteristics
- social, cultural and personal welfare (or social assistance, for short) within a historical perspective
- visions and strategies within social and community work
- the capacity to act methodically within the field of remedial and special education
- the capacity to systematically reflect on one’s own performance within the scope of a welfare relationship
Observing and reporting:
- different methods for collecting data
- goal-oriented observation
- logging data/keeping records
- interpreting data correctly
- key points to remember when making reports
Communication:
- background model: general system theory
- linear and circular views of communication
- Watzlawick’s axioms
- organization of the human interaction
Entry-level skills
Exit qualifications in secondary education.
Exit-level skills
The core skills from the training profile listed in the ‘objectives’ section are fully underpinned by the following exit-level skills of the training module:
- At the level of knowledge and comprehension; the students:
o Correctly define what behaviour-oriented social and community work entails.
o Can link behaviour-oriented social and community work with the visions of a better society which underpin it.
o Can differentiate the different methods of observing and logging data.
o Can give reasons why general system theory provides an important perspective
within remedial and special education.
o Can prove that the mechanism of influencing people is reciprocal and circular and should never be viewed out of context.
o Demonstrate an ability to objectively assess their own learning process within the field of social and community work.
o Consider a case history systematically
- At the application level (skills); the students:
o Correctly apply the lexicon of general system theory and Watzlawick’s communication theory to a definite case history.
o Can formulate possible hypotheses for a specific case history.
Prerequisites
Final Objectives
Materials used
::Click here for additional information::
Learning pack (obtainable from the coursewear department), newspaper articles, scientific papers and supplementary material accessible via Dokeos).
Study costs
Study guidance
Questions can be asked at the end of each lesson. Use of the interactive forum on Dokeos. Examples of past exam questions are gone through in class.
Teaching Methods
Interactive tutorials.
Assessment
This training module is evaluated after the 1st 6-month term.
A written examination consisting of open questions. The examination focuses on the topics and exit-level skills of this training module. The total number of questions is limited to what can be got through comfortably within the allotted time for the exam.
Resits:
An analogous written exam is organized during the resits.
Lecturer(s)
Inge De Waele: ingrid.dewaele@hogent.be
Johan Vandekerkhove: johan.vandekerkhove@hogent.be
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