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Unit of Study WEL91003 - Social Work Foundations for Practice (2017)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    The external unit will have a compulsory residential workshop held at the Gold Coast campus.

Unit description

Introduces students to the profession of social work, and outlines the core knowledge and values required of practising social workers in Australia. The profession is understood within the context of contemporary social welfare arrangements and labour market. The unit seeks to critically examine social work theories and models, as well as different ways of transferring knowledge into practice.

Unit content

  1. The social work profession
  2. The self and social work 
  3. Social work ethics
  4. The welfare state 
  5. The labour market context
  6. Disadvantage and inequality
  7. Social justice, need and empowerment
  8. Knowledge, reflective practice and evidence-based practice
  9. Social work practice theories
  10. Cross-cultural work
  11. Indigenous issues and cross-cultural work
  12. Conclusion

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Gold Coast Session 1 Session 1
Online Session 1,  3 N/A

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 discuss the core knowledge and values of the social work profession
2 explain how social workers respond to ethical issues and dilemmas
3 critically evaluate different social work theories and models
4 explain how evidence-based and reflective practice models can be used to inform social work practice.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. discuss the core knowledge and values of the social work profession
    • GA3:
  2. explain how social workers respond to ethical issues and dilemmas
    • GA3:
  3. critically evaluate different social work theories and models
    • GA4:
  4. explain how evidence-based and reflective practice models can be used to inform social work practice.
    • GA4:

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.