Academic Foundations

Week 10 – Credible Sources

Image sourced from
Teaching Strategies About Source CredibilityTeachHUB

This week’s topic focussed on an extremely important part of academic writing – the credibility of sources. When writing your work it is vital to ensure that you are using the right sources for your topic and that they are authoritative and credible within that field. Critical evaluation of your sources to ensure their authority and credibility involves the consideration of their authority, currency (validity – not monetary), and their purpose.

Some questions to consider for each of these include the following:

Authority

• Has the source’s writing undergone peer-review, that is, has it been reviewed by a board of colleagues who are within the same field as the author.
• Who published the source, was it a government organisation, professional society, self-published, university press or a reputable publisher and consider the purpose of the source’s writing.
• Where does the source’s information come from, is it researched and valid or does it lack evidence and vague, have they provided references or cited their work and have they been critically evaluated.
• Who is the author, are they experienced on this topic or have they been cited in other work?
• Is the author’s work based on primary sources and raw material or secondary based on primary sources?

Currency

• When was the source published, is it current or out of date for your topic (materials in some areas become out of date quickly)?

Purpose

• What does the author intend in their work, is it opinionated, propaganda or fact; do they provide an objective or impartial point of view and do they use biased language or is it free of emotion-rousing words.
• How is the publication organised, is it presented clearly and contain the main ideas and easy to read, does the author repeat themselves.

These are very important points to consider when you write and provide cited and referenced work to ensure that you do not throw away marks and your reputation for lack of critical evaluation of your sources, therefore, give yourself extra time to ensure that you are able to conduct this evaluation when doing assessments.

Academic Foundations

Image Sourced from: LibguideUJHB:
Science – Biotechnology: Plagiarism & Referencing

Week 9 – Plagiarism

“Academic integrity is the moral code of academia. It involves using, generating and communicating information in an ethical, honest and responsible manner.”

Monash Academic Integrity Policy (2013)

Ethical conduct and academic integrity means that your work and the way that you present your work is done demonstrating honesty, fairness, respect, and responsibility through the correct and appropriate acknowledgement of evidence to support your work, confidently presenting your own thinking, not cheating in an attempt to create an unfair advantage for yourself of taking credit for work that is done by others. Ways that academic integrity can be breached include, cheating, collusion, falsification and plagiarism.

Understanding academic integrity and how to prevent breaching it is a crucial part of academic wrting in higher education as well as the workplace and penalties can be severe for both accidental and intentional breaches.

Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s work, images or ideas as your own – not acknowledging the influence of their work on your conclusions or standpoint. Penatlies for plagiarism include: losing marks or a zero mark; suspension or exclustion from course; failing the assessment or subject.

Different forms of plagiarism as described by Monash University website (2018) – Academic integrity – include:

• Copying – literally taking original text or works and using it as your own without acknowledging that it is soneone else’s work.
• Inappropraite paraphrasing – using original text from another source and only changing words to ones with the same or similar meaning within that text, leaving the work to seem the same as the originial source’s work.
• Inappropriate or dishonest citation – not correctly and accurately acknowledging and referencing work from other sources and not using quotation marks where you have quoted the work of others.
• Self-plagiarism – the re-use or copying of your own previous work, without acknowledging and appropirately referencing or reeiving permission from your lecturer.

There are many ways to avoid plagiarism, such as, the use of correct quotations, paraphrasing, summarising and referencing (both in-text and within a reference list).

Be mindful of ethical conduct and academic integrity in your work and writing and ensure that your work demonstrates what you have learnt and how you have come to your standpoint rather through critical analyses and research of your own. Allow yourself enough time to review your work before you submit it to ensure that you are not in breach of either ethical conduct and/or academic integrity in order to avoid losing marks or being penalised for unintentional plagiarism. And remember, when you are in doubt ask your lecturer, they are always there to help you learn and grow in your skills, knowledge and understanding.

Reference:
Monash University. (2018). Academic integrity. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.monash.edu/rlo/research-writing-assignments/referencing-and-academic-integrity/academic-integrity

Working in Community Services

Week 8 – Organisational and Practice Management

Image sourced from:
Community Services Alexander’s Computer Service

The Community Services Industry is highly complex with the involvement of various government and non-government agencies, faith-based services, for-profit companies and collectives which employ a vast spectrum of workers, therefore there is not one specific definition of the goal and purpose of this industry and there are many perspectives of what these should be.

The fundamental purpose of community services is to combat oppression and the empowerment and liberation of individuals and communities to meet their needs and achieve their goals, as stated by Chenoweth & McAuliffe (2017).

The main focus of the roles of community service workers is to raise awareness of inequality and poverty and to ensure that practice is evidence based to ensure that we are able to adequately close these gaps and promote the wellbeing of clients and the community. The nature of human services work as summarised by
Chenoweth & McAuliffe (2017) as follows:

• Human services are about the people.
• Consumers of human service organisation services have a moral, political and social identity.
• Consumers of human service organisation services are self-acting – the responses they make are determined not only by what is ‘done to’ them by the organisation but also by their own desires, motivations and actions.
• The relationship between the clients and the staff is central to the human service organisation’s work.
• These relationships are usually professional, such as a social worker–client, doctor–patient, or receptionist–applicant, and the services are usually delivered through formal structures.
• Human service activities can be classified as processing, sustaining or changing people.

In conclusion the definition of the goal of the Community Services Industry is based on the values and philosophies of the above-mentioned agencies, charities and organisations along with the political and social situation and economic affordability.

Resources

Chenoweth, L & McAuliffe, D. (2017). The Road to Social Work & Human Service Practice. (5 ed.). Australia: Cengage Learning

Working in Community Services

Image Sourced from:
Where are we going? ….to an election
Simon Kneebone

Week 6 – Historical foundations of practice, underpinning values, philosophies and the Community Services Industry: emergence of the practitioner and the helping profession.

This week’s topic focussed on the development of values and philosophies that underpin welfare provision through the history of welfare in the UK and Australia since 1901. I was taken aback by all the information and history and learnt such a great deal about Australian history, welfare and the values and philosophies thereof too. I also found that some of my own views and opinions that have been quite biased have shifted to a more broadened and less objective and generalised outlook. Australian Politics; I never would have thought that I would really find myself so completely absorbed in the readings and understanding of politics, who knew it could actually be a topic of interest for one such as myself – who never really paid much mind to it in the past. That has certainly changed for me today and in the future!

A highly educated profession today, social work was born from the voluntary work conducted by friendly visitors and almoners during the settlement movement of Australian history; the term ‘Human Services’ is used worldwide to comprehensively describe social welfare and community agencies and programs. There is still an ongoing debate as to whether social work and human services should be considered a ‘professional-profession’. One side argues that in order for social work and human service practice to be considered a profession, more research needs to go into the practice and evaluaiton of outcomes, as such practice is not sufficiently based on evidence. The other side declares that due to social work and human services being founded on the ideals of social justice, practitioners ‘should not adopt a professional elitist opinion that effectively disempowers those it purports to support’. On this debate I take a completely outside stance and believe that the focus should not be on whether or not the profession should be term a professional one or not but rather on the aim of ‘human services’ and what it stands for; the philosophies and values that underpin the work within community services is what is most important and ensuring these are aligned to best benefit the Australian community, reduce poverty, provide everyone equally with a ‘fair go’ and continue to promote our diverse culture and respect for multiculturism which continues to help grow our economy and create homes for migrants from all over the world.

The above-mentioned are the values and philosophies that I share which is why I allign most closely with all models of welfare; everyone deserves fair and equal resources and services but each individual’s circumstances require a different model to address their needs based on their situation. Perhaps I will find myself leaning more to one or the other as I learn more about each model and broaden my understanding of each as I continue my studies.

Academic Foundations

Week 5 – Essays

Image Sourced from:
FastwebEssay Tips: 7 Tips on Writing an Effective Essay

In this week’s topic we looked at essays; how to write, structure and reference them. Originally I thought that I had a fair idea about essays and what writing one involved but I was not prepared for the vast knowledge that I gained from this topic. It is easy to simple say that an essay is a piece of writing that is structured and requires you to cite and reference your work in order to avoid plagiarism; which I have now decided to call the ‘simplified basics’ of an essay, however there is a great deal more required to write a ‘good’ essay.

What I really need to focus on:

I have to make sure that I understand the essay question through identifying the key words called ‘instructional words’ and that I understand exactly what is expected, I should paraphrase the topic question in a way that I am able to answer the essay question and keep my focus on this throughout the essay. I have to conduct a focussed review of my notes and readings by identifying the key concepts in the essay question and creating further questions from these, and brainstorm what I already know about the essay question and break these down into sub-topics. I should also consider possible answers for the topic while I do my reading and note taking, which will help me focus on finding relevant, useful and specific information on the essay topic. I have to critically assess the arguments and validity of my sources to make it easier to determine the position that I will adopt in my essay, and include bibliographic details so I do not have to check them later. Before I begin to write, it will be very helpful to summarise my position (or answer to the question) in a sentences or two, and include bibliographic details so I do not have to check them later.

The essay should be logically structured to the essay question and points made within paragraphs need to be connected and well-researched. Some questions to keep in mind when preparing for my essay:

• The TOPIC AREA of my essay is…
• The QUESTION I am answering is….
• My THESIS STATEMENT is…
• THREE STRONG ARGUMENTS that support my thesis are…
• TWO or THREE ARGUMENTS that are in opposition to my thesis are…
• MY MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION are…

To avoid unnecessary spelling mistakes and awkward grammar (which I am great at doing) and confirm that I have correctly answered the essay question, I need to thoroughly edit and proofread my final draft.

Here is something I did not know to this extent:

There are several types of essays and each have their own structures, standards and parts and it is important to understand which type has to be written:

• Analytical essay
• Argumentative essay
• Interpretive essay
• Comparative essay
• Problem and solution essay
• Cause and effect essay

I will have to make use of the essay writing checklist (below) and will definitely refer back to the YouTube video (engvid. (2013, July 22). Writing skills: The paragraph  [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/0IFDuhdB2Hk) very often because I found them to be extremely useful.

Essay writing checklist

Have I …

• Understood the question correctly?
• Answered all parts of the question or task?
• Included a thesis statement (answer to a question or response to a task) and an appropriate argument?
• Developed my argument by using logical points which are well reasoned?
• Used informationfrom academic texts or credible sources to support my argument?
• Included relevant examples, where necessary, from the supplied case study or other data to demonstrate application?
• Been analytical and demonstrated critical thinking in my essay?
• Proofread my work to check that each paragraph links to the previous or the thesis?
• Structured my essay in an introduction, body and conclusion
• Checked my spelling, grammar and punctuation.

I look forward to the challenge of improving my academic writing and language skills and building on this knowledge as I continue through my course.

Working in Community Services

Historical Foundations of Practice

Week 5

This week’s topic focused on the history of welfare starting with the British Poor Laws and the early Australian settlement up to 1901.

In the reading and information for this week I was able to see the development of the values and philosophes that underpin community services and welfare practices as well as how it has developed in response to human need over time.

The English Poor Law was introduced in 1601 and required local parishes to provide funds, through the collection of local taxes, as a way of giving money to the poor; people who were unable to work, assisting in providing work for persons who were able bodied and arranging apprenticeships and foster care for children who were orphaned. Two amendments were made to this law, first in 1662, people who became likely to be dependent on welfare were to return to their former parish and, second in 1834, along with the rise of the Charitable Organisation Society, decreasing the amount of assistance provided and controlling who receives assistance and how much they receive. The ‘undeserving poor’ (people assumed to be fraudsters and malingerers, referred to as ‘able-bodied poor’) – would receive ‘outdoor’ relief which was designed to punish rather than support, whereby they would receive minimal help in their homes or be placed in prison. The ‘worthy poor’ (individuals who were unable to work due to illness, disability or orphaned children) – would receive ‘ indoor’ relief which meant they were housed in institutions or poorhouses/workhouses, while orphans were fostered out to families; they were given housing even though they received token care. (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2017)

Welfare in Australia today works in a much different way to what it did in the 1600s-1800s; to quote (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2017):

It can be argued that applying for help through contemporary income support systems can often be experienced as an arduous and punishing process designed to deter rather than support. Social workers are often at the forefront of assessing individual and family circumstances so that a more holistic picture can be obtained to inform decisions about access to support. This assessment goes beyond a focus on the individual to look at all impacting factors.

(Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2017)

The importance of assessing individuals based on their circumstances and influencing factors is the key to providing best practice and support to those in need of welfare. Remembering that every person has experienced life differently from another and that influencing factors will have different impacts and result in different experiences for individuals. Generalising and placing stigma on those seeking welfare support is a way of adopting Elizabethan principles and is outdated, the world has changed and along with it the people and their needs, and these changes occur on a regular basis and must be considered when working withing the community services sector.

References
Chenoweth, L., & McAuliffe, D. (2017). The Road to Social Work & Human Service Practice (5th ed.). (pp. 34-38). Australia: Cengage Learning

Working in Community Services

Week 4 – Reflection

Image Sourced from:
thepinterest.euWhat Are Social Institutions

This week we focussed on  social institutions, their functions, how they meet the needs of society and their impact. To be honest, I have never heard of this term before, but I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about it and am slowly grasphing its context as I continue my reading and research for assessments. I feel as though I have learnt a whole new ‘view of life’ – a way to look at the bigger-bigger picture instead of the small world tunnel vision of our personal lives that we normally find ourselves in.

Fisrt we looked as sociology and what sociology is:

“Sociology focuses on the organisation of social life. It looks at how people’s lives are influenced by their opportunities and experiences; and the impact that people have on society through taking action and creating change. Sociology provides insights into the ways factors such as class, wealth, race, gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, disability and religion shape people’s lives, but this is only one part of it. Sociology is diverse and covers all aspects of social life. 
Most importantly, sociology is a perspective on the social world that values critical thinking. Sociologists question the commonsense and popular explanations of social life and look at the dynamics of power and inequality in everyday life.”

The Australian Solciological Association (TASA)

There are 5 major social institutions and they are:

• Family – reproduction and socialisation of values and norms for living in our society
• Education – transmission of culture and developing knowledge and skills for work and living in our society
• Work and economy – provide the production and distribution of goods and services
• Government – meet society’s needs through law and order, security, public services, maintain other institutions, politics
• Religion – develop contexts of meaning, values and symbolic codes

Social institutions provide us with the rules and values that determine how our society is organised and they provide the basic societal needs and regulate individual behaviour in society. Social institutions influence individuals, groups and comunities and vice versa.

The Functions of social institutions are:

• Meet the basic needs of society
• Define dominant social values 
• Socialisation: the process of learning how to behave in society
• Maintain social control: institutions create rules for behaviour which they also enforce
• Transmission of culture 
• Establish ongoing patterns of social behaviour 
• Defines roles for each individual in society 
• Support other institutions 

Understanding of human social relationships and social institutions and their interactions and impacts on each other is a vital part of community services work; to enrich and develop our understanding of key social processes we need to be able to gather and analyse evidence (and know how to) about social life and using this research to present our findings that will assist in the implementation of necessary policies and procedures and to obtain the required funding that is used to design programmes and provide resources where required in the community to breach any identified gaps.

I look forward to learning about sociology and social institutions more in-depth throughout the course of my studies.

Resources
About sociology. (2019). The Australian Sociological Association. Retrieved March 14, 2019, from https://tasa.org.au/what-is-sociology/
What is sociology. (2019. College of Arts and Sciences: Department of Sociology. Retrieved March 14, 2019, from https://sociology.unc.edu/undergraduate-program/sociology-major/what-is-sociology/

Working in Community Services

Image Sourced from:
Australian Institute of Health and WelfareGraphic explaining the social and community characteristics that are determinants of health and wellbeing. These

Week 3

Social indicators, Target Groups and Social Issues

Social indicators were developed for many purposes, such as, measuring the progress of a nation or community, measuring community wellbeing and, evaluating the impact of specific policies.

These indicators are treated as a source of knowledge to provide a basis for action and decision; using these indicators in combination with a specific target group one can identify matters of concern to the community and governments, for exaple, housing needs of low income families.

As a CS worker, these can be used to research and evaluate where there is a social concerns or gaps within communities and establish the right course of action in order to meet needs, close these gaps and, where needed, make a case to government about putting policies in place or to obtain funding for community projects that will provide the target groups with the required resources to assist in breaching that gap.

A social concern: ‘an identifiable and defining aspiration or concern for fundamental and direct importance to human well-being’ (OECD,1973, p. 7)

• Social indicators:
• are statistics that describe the wellbeing of individuals and communities
• identify problem areas in social, economic and psychological welfare
• can be monitored over time to identify changes in social phenomena
• provide a tool to assess progress 
• used by policy makers, decision makers, community service organisations and the public

There are numerous examples of indicator frameworks in use around the world and in Australia. These indicators have been developed for a variety of purposes, ranging from measuring the progress of a nation or community or measuring general community ‘wellbeing’, to evaluating the impact of specific policies (such as outcomes for indigenous groups, or measuring the effectiveness of social inclusion policies). 

Resources
The Roeher Institute, 2003 Policy Approaches to Farming Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion: An Overview, Toronto, ON: The Roeher Institute, p.25.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2017. Australia’s welfare 2017. Australia’s welfare series no. 13. AUS 214. Canberra: AIHW. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/da44307c-4ae7-4d08-a5ad-f8e8529f8040/aihw-australias-welfare-2017-chapter1-7.pdf.aspx

Group and Community Work

Week 3

Image sourced from:
Social Media Data Evaluate the Effectiveness

Steps to gain experience with the evaluation process of a group program initiative.

Experience with the evaluation process of a group program initiative is gained through personal development and training, knowing and understanding your community program and its purpose and goal/s, up to date research, mentoring and coaching.

Skills in evaluation can be developed through training courses and workshops provided by local colleges or universities or groups such as the Australian Evaluation Society. Another way to gain experience is to ‘sit-in’ with another more qualified group leader, or have one supervise, during group programs.

Additional skills can be developed by being part of a team which will help you develop your interpersonal skills such as speaking and listening as well as team working skills such as leadership, and working with and motivating others. These skills will be useful to have in group programs.

Resources and additional information:

Evaluator’s Professional Learning Competency Framework. (2013). Australian Evaluation Society. Retrieved March 5, 2019, from https://www.aes.asn.au/images/stories/files/Professional%20Learning/AES_Evaluators_Competency_Framework.pdf

Smith, E. (2018). How to build your expertise: Monitoring and evaluation. Retrieved from March 5, 2019, https://www.devex.com/news/how-to-build-your-expertise-monitoring-and-evaluation-93724

Lifespan Development

Week 3

Image sourced from:
InstructablesHow to Build a Jigsaw Puzzle

Which theoretical perspective makes the most sense to you?  Why?

Vygotsky’s perspective makes the most sense; it takes into account the impact of sociocultural factors on cognitive development, meaning that it has to be understood in terms of the particular social, cultural, and historical processes of people’s experiences.
Individuals will display differences in how they think and solve problems and how their cognitive development occurs depending on the different cultures, societies and historical periods.

Children learn from their role-models in life, from infancy to adolescence it is usually their parents, teachers, or perhaps even an older sibling; their role models guide them and provide them with the language, skills, and resources to continue their development into adulthood.

Language is the main means used by adults to pass on information and learning experiences to children and is considered to be a very powerful too of intellectual adaptation, it is an accelerator to thinking and understanding. Language develops from social interactions for communication purposes and children who develop their language this way are generally more socially competent and develop into independent and functioning adults.

One thing that really stood out for me was the father (MKO) who teaches the child how to build a puzzle because while reading this, I thought back on how much I love puzzles and how my grandfather taught me to build them.

“Shaffer (1996) gives the example of a young girl who is given her first jigsaw. Alone, she performs poorly in attempting to solve the puzzle. The father then sits with her and describes or demonstrates some basic strategies, such as finding all the corner/edge pieces and provides a couple of pieces for the child to put together herself and offers encouragement when she does so. As the child becomes more competent, the father allows the child to work more independently. According to Vygotsky, this type of social interaction involving cooperative or collaborative dialogue promotes cognitive development” (Schaffer, R. (1996). Social development. Oxford: Blackwell).

Resources

• McLeod, S. A. (2018, Aug 05). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
• (Schaffer, R. (1996). Social development. Oxford: Blackwell)
• Sigelman, C. K., De George-Walker, L., Cunail, K. & Rider, E. A, (2019). Life span human development (3rd Aust. & NZ ed.). South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning Australia. Chapter 2