ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a exploration of supervision’s functions, describes the development of supervisory practice models and learning to be a field educator, and suggests ways of linking the literature to day-to-day practice. Supervision is both a series of events —regular formal meetings between a student and agency staff member—and a process of enabling students to learn and to deliver an appropriate standard of service to the client group. Most training courses for human services workers includes time-limited fieldwork where students learn in work settings with an accredited practitioner known as a ‘field educator’, ‘supervisor’ or ‘field instructor’. The apprenticeship model has been the basic approach to teaching from the earliest days of training human services workers. An analysis of the styles of talk makes it possible to see the likely results of supervision and to monitor these against an assessment of the student’s learning needs and learning styles.
