Do we need a second opinion here?

Abstract

In contrast to research undertaken in other aspects of practice teaching, relatively little attention has been paid to measuring the effectiveness of practice teachers. This paper begins with an attempt to establish why it is important that we take the issue of practice teaching standards very seriously, focusing in particular on the ever increasing prospect of legal action against practice teachers alleged to be incompetent and the possibility of a connection between a practice teacher’s incompetence and his or her incompetence as a social work practitioner.

Ways of supporting and monitoring the performance of practice teachers are explored with these considerations in mind before moving on to consider how practice teachers who cannot or will not change practice which is deemed to be incompetent should be managed. The paper concludes with some final reflections with tentative suggestions as to how to monitor the practice of other social work educators.