Assessment strategy and rationale

The three assessment tasks used in this unit assist students to achieve the unit learning outcomes and develop the associated graduate attributes. 

Task 1: Record and review live supervision and feedback from clinical work, Hurdle 

Recording live supervision and feedback of clinical work is an essential task which students will use in Tasks 2 & 3. This task allows students to learn to become attentive, curious and engaged in the fine detail of what transpires in the process of therapy, and discover that there are multiple layers of process occurring in the session of which they were not aware while conducting the session. Students can identify and reflect on the subtle and pivotal moments, the emotional reactions and experiences of the members of the family, and learn about their and their own automatic responses in these moments. Noticing and recognising such moments in retrospect, alerts students to the conversations that evoked them and the importance they had in the unfolding experiences. Reviewing a session develops students' capacity to manage their emotional reactions and improve flexibility, deliberately improve their emotional self-regulation, and develop clinical decision-making. This process improves students' cognitive-relational functioning, developing their capacity to manage their attentional resources and memory process, so that they can notice and recall sequences of interaction and place their attention on important relational episodes. This task also builds students' confidence and awareness of their unique personal knowledge, along with their capacity to share and enact their expertise in collaborative engagement in the systemic process. This task has been found to facilitate development of the complex constellation of cognitive–affective competencies which under-pin development of automaticity of therapeutic responses and sound clinical decision-making in the heat of the moment. 

Task 2: In-depth session analysis (2000 words), Pass/Fail

This in-depth analysis requires students to take themselves back, immerse themselves into pivotal moments in the session and analyse their in-the-moment experience, and subsequent observation about the way they managed that moment. Reflective analysis of key moments allows students to mentally rehearse other options and/or acknowledge moments of sound decision making, hence further integrating these segments with post-session reflection from clients, peers, supervisor and if appropriate, formal outcome measures. The act of sequencing these in-the-moment observations into a coherent in-depth written narrative contributes to the quality and depth of the learning experience and builds procedural knowledge and clinical confidence. The task becomes a profound learning experience and facilitates students development as researcher-practitioner family and systemic therapists. 

Task 3: Clinical review and evaluation of a sequence of therapy session using case-study method (2000 words), Pass/Fail  

The case-study research method provides students with pragmatic and accessible guidelines on conducting structured and systematic research within a clinical role, in a way that significantly benefits clients. It is a valid tool for thoughtfully applying well-reasoned and ethically sound interventions and systematically investigating the quality of outcome. This task facilitates the development of both Family and Systemic Therapy competencies, and investigative and analytic skills of a practitioner-researcher family therapist. It is well established that conducting case-based research with one's own cases develops students as both competent research-informed practitioners and practitioner-researchers. It provides students with a methodology to grow in Family and Systemic Therapy competencies and contribute to the body of knowledge on delivering effective family and systemic therapy.