Frustrating

Check out antiSWer's comment to "Adequate is fine."

Judging student competencies is very difficult for some supervisors. My last practicum supervisor and I had lengthy conversations about the matter. The line between "meeting" and "exceeding" expectations wasn't clear to them. For example, in the area concerning understanding policy, they thought it had to do with how many policies I had memorized, rather than having an understanding about policies and how they impacted the work. It was very frustrating.

Frustrating indeed! Nothing kills our motivation to learn and grow more than unclear expectations. This also is a precursor to burn out and compassion fatiuge. This also points out the importance of social work faculty establishing clearly stated ways of measuring competence. I see the bigger challeng: keeping the focus on learning and not get caught up in the grading process.

How do you set standards that are good enough for yourself and others? How do we keep our eye on the process of learning and growing and not get caught up in the details of the way we are evauated?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shellysblogger/3684995003/ by ShellyS