Evaluating Student Field Education: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Despite the importance given to student field performance evaluations in social work education, little empirical evidence has supported their validity. In the study described in this article, field supervisors' ratings of student performance in the field were compared to an independent judge's content analyses of tape recordings of their performance. The results revealed significant correlations between the supervisors' and the judge's ratings, providing evidence for the validity of the supervisors' evaluations. It is argued that the validity of the these evaluations may have been enhanced by the students' use of a well-specified intervention model and of structured recording forms.