ThursdayThunking

ISSN 2516-3078

Running bi-monthly, ThursdayThunking* is a series of thought-provoking articles will offer information, insight and ideas... and maybe cause you to rethink the way you view things. Our goal is to stimulate thinking, improve practice and provide a critical backdrop for ongoing debate.

* Yes, it's a real word! Thunking: the act of thinking deeply and/or for long periods of time.

If you'd be interested in writng an article for ThursdayThunking, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Have a look at our guidance notes and then get in touch.

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today”

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today”

Aidan Martin, a student social worker, shares some of his techniques of visualisation.
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Relationship-based practice: keeping the ‘heart’ in practice

Sarah McCulloch reminds us that a relationship-based approach is collaborative, not confrontational, congruent, respectful and not indulgent or neglectful and essentially it is kind.
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Service user and carer representation: exploring barriers to participation

In this month's ThursdayThunking, Sian Lucas from Stirling University explores Service User and Carer involvement in social work education drawing directly from some of the experiences of members of UNITY, Stirling University's service user and carer group.
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Student mental health and wellbeing on placement

Two social work students look at the subject of mental health in social work students, the importance of awareness of life stressors that students may face and how to support practice teachers and students to get to know one another better when first meeting.
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The art of asking “What do you think?” – How to develop social work students’ professional judgement skills

Joanna Rawles discusses how social work students develop the skills for professional judgement on their placements and what helps them to do so.
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Revisiting Explosive Metaphors and Practice Learning Relationships

Gillian Ferguson explores the significance of the varying and complex dynamics when issues arise within practice learning.
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Language Integrity: Supporting Students to Demonstrate Social Work Values through Word Choice

Students often adopt the language being used by those around them without necessarily questioning it. Sara Hitchin writes about whether the language we use reflects social work values.
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It’s time to ditch acronyms!

Andrew Gambrill challenges us to ditch the acronyms.
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Live observation of social work students: a four-step model

Allyson Davys and Liz Beddoe share their four-step model for the live observation of social work students.
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Safe Collisions

Kirstin Parkes writes about working with students to reconcile divergent personal and professional values.
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Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3) – Becoming a Practice Educator

If you have ever thought about being a practice educator, or, are a practice educator and have not done it for a while, or currently have a student with you, here are 10 good reasons, why, in an era of even bigger and more complex workloads alongside rapidly disappearing resources, you should just carry on and practice educate regardless.
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Are social workers like wine – better with maturity?

Jane Fenton wonders whether we need to consider more emphasis on logic, analysis, problem solving and a framework for critical reasoning as a core and systematic theme within social work education.
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Grading practice skills in social work education

Alison Domakin talks about grading practice skills in social work education.
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