Field Instructor Resources
Indigenous Initiatives
- Read about University of Toronto’s Indigenous initiatives.
- MSW Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency (ITR) Field of Study
Risk Reduction and Student Safety
Student safety is of paramount concern. The following Checklists have been developed to assist the field instructor and student with key components for the practicum:
- Checklist I: Practicum Safety and Orientation (PDF)
- Checklist II Practicum Learning and Reflection (PDF)
Evaluation
Please see Evaluation and Feedback in the Practicum Manual.
Accessibility Information
The University of Toronto’s Accessibility Services supports students who experience difficulties affecting their learning in lectures, labs and/or tutorials and practicum courses through academic and practicum accommodations. Accommodations and services are individualized to each student and the learning needs of each course and program.
See the FIFSW Practicum Accommodations Guide (PDF) for full details.
For more information about Accessibility Services registration please see the Accessibility Services Registration and Documentation page.
Please also see the AODA Information for Faculty and Academic Staff on Effective Accommodations for Placements, and Practicums Handbook (PDF).
The Social Identity Wheel
The Social Identity Wheel worksheet is an activity that encourages students to identify social identities and reflect on the various ways those identities become visible or more keenly felt at different times, and how those identities impact the ways others perceive or treat them. The worksheet prompts students to fill in various social identities (such as race, gender, sex, ability disability, sexual orientation, etc.) and further categorize those identities based on which matter most in their self-perception and which matter most in others’ perception of them.
Learning goals can be: To encourage students to consider their identities critically and how identities are more or less keenly felt in different social contexts; to illuminate how privilege operates to normalize some identities over others and to sensitize students to their shared identities with their classmates as well as the diversity of identities in the classroom, building community and encouraging empathy (from University of Michigan LSA Inclusive Teaching).
Student Feedback
What Students Appreciate (PDF) – a summary of feedback from past MSW practicum students that highlights what field instructors did that made the practicum experience particularly valuable, engaging and enjoyable.
Mindfulness
Ellen Katz – Five Minute Mindfulness Practice (audio)
Partnerships
Bertha Rosenstadt Trust: As a faculty, the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work is committed to strengthening ties we have with partner organizations who offer practica to our MSW students. The Bertha Rosenstadt Trust Fund in Health Research, which is available to organizations with which we have partnerships, as well as to all other Health Sciences Faculties at U of T, is one way to strengthen and cultivate quality practicums.
Interprofessional Education Materials
Interprofessional education (IPE) for students occurs when individuals from at least 2 different roles or professions learn about, from and with each other to collaborate effectively as team members in working towards best outcomes.