Practice Education for Social Workers (Stage 1 PEPS)
Applications open May 2026 for autumn intake 6 full days of teaching plus support for a learner in practice for the duration of their placement.

The module team has extensive experience of working with Practice Educators as well as students within placement environments, providing support and guidance though direct teaching and offering tutorial support when required. 

The module has received excellent feedback from our participants, External Examiners and agency partners.

The provision of formal taught lectures and seminars are the key means of offering academic support to you as well as providing a reflective space for you to explore the more nuanced and complex areas of practice you will experience as a student educator. The sessions will support you to recognise and debate the key skills, approaches and attributes expected of students on the programme. You will be encouraged and supported to have the confidence to engage in discussion and constructive critique of your own and others’ work in a safe environment.

Feedback and feedforward to guide future work will be provided through group work sessions throughout the module. These sessions will also support you to generate material, debate ideas and discuss your developing views of key concepts and reflect on your practice helping you identify strengths and areas for development.

The module team will provide face to face/ online academic support during the module. Providing the opportunity for further formative feedback you have the opportunity to submit an annotated assignment plan electronically for formative feedback.

This module will offer you the chance to learn about the roles and responsibilities of the social work practice educator and help you to meet the Practice Educator Professional Standards for social work. It will also recognise the diversity of practice educators and learners in this context. There are three broad components to what you will learn: 

 

Organising opportunities for the demonstration of assessed practice, including underpinning knowledge values and skills that will help you to: 

• Design, plan and implement learning experiences relevant to social work practice education

• Develop professional supervisory relationships

• Work to professional codes/ values/ educational standards

• Maintain quality in educational practice in a social work practice education role

 

Enabling learning and professional development in practice, including underpinning knowledge values and skills that will help you to exercise:

•  Relevant teaching and learning theory and learning strategies

• Formative and summative assessment strategies relevant to the social work practice educator role

• Assessment for learning

• Management of the assessment of learners in practice.

 

Managing professional and educational dilemmas, including underpinning knowledge values and skills to meet appropriate professional standards in relation to:

• Accountability

• The under achieving/ failing/ challenging learner

• Analysis of complex information

• Making professional judgements and decision making regarding social work practice education.

 

This module has two assessed components:

The summative assessment for this module will be in two parts:

Part 1: You will be required to submit a 3000-word essay which will explore an issue which has presented in your role as a practice educator. This essay will explore both your work with the learner and how this is underpinned by knowledge of the role, educational theory and professional standards. This will address  MLOs 1,2,3,5

Part 2; You will submit a logbook demonstrating the achievement of relevant professional educational standards (Domains A-D of PEPS), assessed in practice by a Stage 2 practice educator. This logbook includes the required observation of practice and quality assurance documentation. This will address MLO 4

 

Formative assessment will be comprise peer and tutor feedback built into seminar activities during class room sessions, and the opportunity to submit an annotated assignment plan electronically for formative feedback. 

Written feedback will be offered on the summative assessments.

 

Practice Education for Social Work is primarily research tutored in that students will engage with current thinking in both educational practice and the social work practice context. However, this will also have elements of an enquiry based approach in the context of exploring the knowledge base for work with the individual l earner in practice. Module content is informed by accessing current research and students encouraged to consider the evidence base for example around how HE students learn, and service user experiences. Sessions in the current module include, for example, “article speed-dating” where students find a relevant piece of research and move around the seminar presenting the methodology and key findings to small groups of colleagues. 

Our teaching staff are experienced in practice education, have been continuously involved in shaping the policy and practice landscapes of practice education, and actively research in this area.

Successful completion of this module makes you eligible to undertake the stage 2 Practice Educator module, and to act as a Practice Educator for First Placement Students without oversight.