Empirical Research on Student Assessment in Field Education:

For the last 30 years, research in social work has focused on the effectiveness of social work practice and social work education. One essential component of the social work education curriculum is field education. Analysis of the effectiveness of field education requires answers to four question about the assessment of student performance: (1) what qualities and skills are needed in the student?, (2) when should a student fail?, (3) who carries the responsibility for assessment of fieldwork?, and (4) how do we find out what a student's practice performance is? A review of recent empirical research studies in field education attempts to assess how well these questions have been answered.