Stages in the Progress of First-Year Students in the Veterans Administration

Abstract

There are probably two general stages in the field experience in this setting in which the student shows the most genuine desire to learn. The first period is at the beginning of the placement when he is receptive and eager, even though suffering anxiety about beginning. The second period comes when he recognizes his own developing skill and begins to use it. In between there is a long period when the supervisor needs to sustain the student through disappointment, error, and regression. In some situations, the student's desire to retreat may be so strong as to cause the supervisor much concern about whether he will be able to progress further. At these points the supervisor should be especially careful about evaluating the student's ultimate capacity to move ahead. In the field work training of students in this setting, these stages of development are discernible. This does not mean that the development of all the students is uniform, or that they all arrive at the same stage at the same time. One student may spend half of his placement period in the first two stages; another may progress with seemingly little difficulty to the last stage but show little change within it. Nor has it been found that one stage of development is mastered before the student moves into the next; the development of two stages in a student can occur almost simultaneously. Individual differences inevitably come into play, and the stages of learning, as described in this paper, have meaning only when applied to the individual student and his particular learning experience.