ABSTRACT
Social work, in common with other professions, needs to train ‘individuals who can
live in a delicate but ever changing balance between what is known and the flowing,
moving, altering problems and facts of the future’ (Rogers 1993: 229). In this
chapter, we will discuss how in a fast-changing world the use of intentional, focused
observation can provide one means of facilitating the transfer of learning. We
understand the transfer of learning to mean ‘prior learning affecting new learning or
performance’ (Cree et al. 1998: 10). The approach to observation that we are adopting
in this chapter contrasts with everyday ideas about looking and seeing, which most
sighted people do without thinking. If this everyday, informal observation is located
at one end of an observational continuum, then intentional observation, which is
purposeful and leads to action, is at the other (Weade and Evertson 1991). During
a placement, for example, a practice teacher may observe a student informally in a
number of situations but may use intentional observation as a specific tool for
learning and assessment.
