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RUNNING HEAD: LEARNING PLAN

Learning Plan
Stephanie McConnell
University of Victoria
October 3, 2014

LEARNING PLAN
Step One: Tasks and a Schedule
&
Step Two: Examining Relevant Practice Areas
# Task

Date

Practice Area

1 Assessment of Practicum

October 1

Observing and Recording,

Developing
Professionalism, Working
collaboratively with a
supervisor

2 Collaboration with Supervisor

Initial: Sept 30;

Working collaboratively with

a supervisor

On-going

3 Client Assessment

November 15

Observing and Recording

4 Intervention Plan

November 30

Applying developmental
theory, applying ecological
systems perspectives

5 Intervention Activity(ies)

January 30

Planning and implementing

therapeutic interventions

6 Evaluation of Intervention

February 15

Reporting

7 Craft Planning for October

Each Thursday in
October

Applying developmental
theory, Planning and
implementing therapeutic
interventions

8 House and grounds health and safety

Every morning at
practicum

check
9 Individual Module Tasks

As suggested by
course outline

Step Three: Baseline Competency

Establishing therapeutic relationships is something I believe is one of my greatest
strengths. Relationship building has always come naturally to me and has grown considerable
throughout my past 6 years working in the field and my post-secondary education. I do believe

LEARNING PLAN

that it will be a challenge because I spend very little time with the moms in the program or at the
drop-in group. I think my learning here will be to establish trusting relationships quickly so that
in the moment interventions are seen as acts of support rather than meddling.
Planning and implementing therapeutic interventions is another area in which I feel quite
competent. Over the past three years, my full-time job has been planning and implementing
interventions with adults with disabilities. Now, it will be adjusting my strategies so that they
work with mothers and their children.
I often have challenges with my perception of supervisors. Not to say that I have negative
working relationships with them, but I hold everyone to a very high standard, including myself. I
expect a lot from them because I hope that they expect a lot from me. If I do not feel like a
valued member of the team or if I believe that my supervisor is not doing the best they can I find
it hard to respect them. This has never gotten in the way of a work or practicum position, and I
plan to keep it that way. I do find it challenging to communicate with supervisors that I do not
feel like are living up to my expectations. This is something I am already actively working on in
my practicum and will continue to work on throughout my practicum experience.
*Updated thought on this matter* So I know that this is supposed to be draft for me to
update as I go along, but it ended up needing updating before I handed it in for the first time! In
my counselling class on Tuesday, we were talking at great lengths about congruency in the
counsellor. That is when I realized, it is not just that I hold people to high standards, I am very
sensitive to peoples congruence. I know this about myself when I am in a helping role, but I
never considered how that sensitivity played out in the rest of my life. Now, looking back at past
supervisors that I felt that I did not respect or understand, it was because I was seeing them as
incongruent between what they said and what they did. I have yet to discover how I will use this

LEARNING PLAN
knowledge to build these professional alliances, but I it is making me more willing to work
through this. My hope is that through this practicum I will learn how to address this issue and

when it is appropriate in the relationship to do so. I find that I know the answers for working in a
therapeutic relationship, but not in a inter professional relationship.
While I have a good understanding of developmental theory and the systems perspective,
I find that I tend to go with my gut on a lot of decisions. I know that my instincts are a
combination of education and experience but I would like to be more intentional with my actions
and ensure that they are coming from a proven practice rather than what feels right in the
moment. I will do this by rereading my child development texts for kids under 5 and examine
some of my other textbooks in regards to theories of intervention that would be pertinent to my
practicum placement.
Step Four: How do I set my professional learning goal?
1. Assessment of Practicum
By asking lots of questions, using resources around the practicum site, having
conversations with my supervisor and other staff I have been able to complete
my initial Assessment of the practicum site. This has helped me develop in the
areas of professionalism, observing and recording, and working collaboratively
with my supervisor.
2. Collaboration with Supervisor
My supervisor prefers to have informal talks rather than formal sit down
conversations about my practicum. Because of this developing my skills
of collaborating with my supervisor will be more than just learning to
communicate with a new person, but also determining how and when these

LEARNING PLAN

communication opportunities will appear. It will also give me the opportunity to

develop my assertiveness and self-advocacy skills, which are skills that I can
teach but are not proficient in when it comes to workplace interactions.
3. Client Assessment
Every time I see a client I am assessing them for generally where they are at in
that moment, I am also assessing their child. Also, as community moms come in
to the drop-in programs, I am assessing them for what sorts of support during the
drop-in programs they may require. My observation skills I believe are pretty
strong however my recording skills have not yet been put to the test in a formal
setting like this. Case notes were discouraged at my last workplace. I am still not
sure if I will be recording case notes, but I will be communicating my
observations with the two counsellors on site. I will need to work on being
succinct and objective in my communications about the moms and babes I
observe.
4. Intervention Plan
As I mentioned in step three, I need practice intentionally applying my
developmental theory and systems perspective knowledge. I plan to do this by
refreshing my memory with the resources I have and doing more research online
about interventions and theories used in this type of setting. I will also consult
and observe the counsellors at my practicum as they work with the moms and
babes to determine from what lenses they practice.
5. Implementing Therapeutic Interventions

LEARNING PLAN

This is one task that I am not very worried about. I have a lot of experience in
this, just not with this age group or population. I look forward to learning more
about this from the staff and online research over the next few months. It will
definitely be a learning curve, but it will be a very interesting opportunity for me
to broaden my knowledge.
6. Evaluation of Intervention
This will be an easy task for me. I am very self-aware, to a fault. The
challenging part will be allowing me to accept that nothing will ever be perfect,
and that is okay. I have mentioned before that I have high expectations for
myself, and I need to remember that the interventions success is based on the
outcomes that happen for the mom and her babe, not how well I perceive the
intervention to have occurred. Evaluating myself requires me to exert a lot of
self-care tools so that I acknowledge how my intervention worked for the
person, not whether or not I executed it perfectly.
7. Craft Planning for October
Planning crafts for babes and moms on a budget is not always the simplest of
tasks. I have been researching on the internet different toddler craft ideas. I have
been trying to integrate developmental theory by choosing age and stage
appropriate crafts keeping in mind things like finger dexterity, attention span,
and safety. I am also trying to find crafts that engage the mom along with her
babe to help increase attachment and show positive parenting examples of how
to interact with your babe at a mom and babe group.
8. House and Grounds Health and Safety Check

LEARNING PLAN

This task takes up 30-45 minutes of my practicum everyday, but I have yet to see
the learning potential of this task. Other than the implementation of a Y policy at
a program site. This task has value for the program site as it involves:
inside/outside property check for anything unsafe, putting away dishes, cleaning
up anything missed by weekend staff (mopping, sweeping, putting away toys,
vacuuming), checking front and back porches for garbage, taking out garbage
and restocking the communal bathrooms.
9. Individual Module Tasks
These tasks involve aspects of all of the eight Relevant Practice Areas as
laid out in the course syllabus. To ensure I get the best learning out of these
tasks, I will complete them within the time frame of each two week module to
the best of my ability. I will also strive to become a member of the online
community by actively engaging with other students each week.