Abstract
Social work educational providers at higher educational institutions (HEIs) in South Africa have been obliged since 2008 to engage with the South African Qualifications Authority’s (SAQA’s) qualification of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW), which was registered in June 2003 in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). In February 2004 the South African Social Service Professions Council (SACSSP) wrote a letter to all social work educational providers requesting them to benchmark their current curriculum against the new minimum standard requirements of the BSW on a template. Furthermore, providers of social work education and training had to indicate how they would change their current learning programmes to accommodate the minimum standards, which encompass 27 exit-level outcomes and their associated assessment criteria. Providers had until June 2006 to comply with the requirements of the new BSW qualification and had to start implementation of the learning programme in January 2007.
Highlights
Social work educational providers at higher educational institutions (HEIs) in South Africa have been obliged since 2008 to engage with the South African Qualifications Authority’s (SAQA’s) qualification of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW), which was registered in June 2003 in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF)
In order to engage in such activities, social work educators need to engage with the concepts of outcomesbased education (OBE), which has become an important component of educational policy in South Africa (Naicker, 2000)
I was able to utilise certain exit-level outcomes of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and their associated assessment criteria as guides to develop the content of the module and the assessment exercises which would give students opportunities to show that they were competent in relation to specific outcomes
Summary
Social work educational providers at higher educational institutions (HEIs) in South Africa have been obliged since 2008 to engage with the South African Qualifications Authority’s (SAQA’s) qualification of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW), which was registered in June 2003 in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). University educators at the institution where I teach attended a workshop on how to become a registered assessor for SAQA, which required developing a portfolio of evidence on a particular learner. Both of these imperatives provided an opportunity for new ways of engaging with curriculum development, teaching, learning and assessment of students. After a description of the process I engaged in to implement the exit-level outcomes and plan and conduct assessment of learning, I evaluate the pros and cons of outcomes-based education for the Social Work curriculum. I will evaluate the pros and cons of engaging in such a process for the social work education and curriculum process
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