Factors associated with student satisfaction in undergraduate social work field placements

Abstract

Since the accreditation of undergraduate social work programs in 1974, there has been an increasing emphasis and focus on undergraduate education and especially on the content of the curriculum. The fieldwork course has been described by undergraduate students as the most important and useful component of the curriculum. In order to determine the factors that contribute to student satisfaction in field placement, a pilot study was undertaken at George Mason University in 1978.

In 1979, the pilot instrument was revised and pre-tested. The Student Practicum Satisfaction Questionnaire (SPSQ) was subsequently developed and utilized in the present study. The SPSQ consists of 27 demographic variables, 73 Likert-type satisfaction items plus three items which provided additional information. One hundred and seventy students responded to the student questionnaire.

The program Frequencies was used to address three research questions (1, 3 and 5) which dealt with the demographic characteristics of the Virginia students, their field instructors and placement agencies. The t-test and Multiple Regression Analysis were utilized to address the three research questions (2, 4 and 6) which looked at the relationship between the demographic characteristics and student satisfaction. Pearson correlation was employed to explore the relationship between the expressed explanations of the student perceptions and level of satisfaction. The last research question (8) was addressed through the program Factor Analysis and the factors which made the greatest contribution to the variance of Overall Student Satisfaction were identified.

The study results showed that the demographic variable Block Placement made the greatest contribution to student satisfaction. Other demographic variables which were found to be significantly associated with student satisfaction were: GPA (inverse), remuneration, degree of field instructor (inverse), social work (inverse), urban agency, prior training of graduate social work students, of undergraduate social work students (inverse) and variety of tasks. The factor which made the greatest contribution (59.3 percent) to student satisfaction was New Learning or ability to achieve fieldwork objectives.