The assessment of social work students' attitudes

Abstract

Abstract There would seem to be an assumption made by CCETSW in Paper 30 (1995, Revised Edition) that, by assessing the behaviour and use of language of social work students, it is possible to draw conclusions about the attitudes, in terms of values, that the newly qualified social worker holds on graduation. However, this paper suggests that these inferences are unjustified, and that current assessment procedures do not actually assess attitudes. A discussion is formulated which explores the possible existence of discrepancies between what social work students say about their attitudes and how they act with service users; what they believe their attitudes are and what is expressed in their behaviour; what their genuine, but concealed, attitudes are. In addition, it is suggested that some social workers may hold a ‘personal or actual set of values’ simultaneously with a ‘professional or theoretical set of values’, the second being less fundamental to the holder's self concept.