My Learning Journal

Supporting Workplace Study

My Learning Journal

This learning journal is a personal resource that you will build up during your study of the Supporting Workplace Study course. You will use it to record your thoughts for specific activities in the course, and you can add to the journal at any time with further notes and observations. Once you have completed the course, we hope that this journal will be an invaluable source of information in your role as a supervisor/mentor.
This Journal is designed to be filled in online, but you may print it and write in it instead if you prefer. If you use it online, you will need to open the journal to complete some of the tasks. Don't forget to save it every time you use it.

Name:
Organisation:
Date:

Module 2 4

Colleagues' opinions 4

My roles as a supervisor 6

Benefits to my work practice 8

Module 3 9

My experience of the supervision process 9

A recent day’s work experience 11

My first experiences at work 12

Others' first experiences at work 13

Confidentiality 15

Valuing and managing emotions 16

Dealing with conflict in relationships 17

Module 4 18

SWOT analysis 18

Offering support 20

Progressive focusing 21

The pitfalls of not listening 22

Open and closed questions 24

Improving communications 25

More about learning styles 26

Module 5 27

Creating a supportive environment for supervision 27

Setting up the first meeting 28

Newcomers 29

Ajay's supervision session 31

Promoting professional practice 32

Ending supervision 34

Looking ahead 35

Module 6 36

Collecting material for portfolios 36

Using portfolios 39

Portfolios and formal assessment 40

Work in progress 41

Using a lens of observation and description 42

Using a lens of analysis and evaluation 44

Using a lens of synthesis and speculation 45

Supervision tensions 46

Module 7 47

Looking back at supervision 47

Development plan and learning contract 49

Module 2

Colleagues' opinions

Think back over the past few days or weeks. What opinions have you heard experienced colleagues express about the performance of less experienced colleagues (including trainees or students on placements, if you have them)? These opinions could be just passing remarks or perhaps accounts of specific incidents.

Opinion expressed	My notes

Module 2

My roles as a supervisor

What roles do you think you will have to play in your Professional Supervision? What tensions might arise? Record your ideas in this document. Don’t forget to refer to the explicit advice and instructions provided by the course to which you are linked.

Role	Possible tensions	My notes

Module 2

Benefits to my work practice

What benefits do you expect or hope to achieve for your own work practice during supervision?

Benefit	My notes

Module 3

My experience of the supervision process

Think about your own expectations of the supervision process. Use this document to answer some key questions. You may choose to record your initial expectations of professional supervision and compare them with the reality of professional supervision as it develops in practice.

Question	My notes
What do you hope that you and the student will gain from the process?
What would you like to see happening in supervision sessions?
How do you want the relationship between you and the student to develop?
How can the process of supervision help the student to learn and develop good practice in their organisation?
What do you think is good practice in professional supervision?
What are the skills and attributes of an effective supervisor, and do you think you have them?

Module 3

A recent day’s work experience

Describe a recent day’s work experience.

• 
  What were your plans, hopes and timetable for the day?
  
• 
  What actually happened?
  
• 
  If the two were different, in your experience is this a frequent occurrence?
  

As you think about this, consider how the work patterns of external agencies, the local conditions (such as weather), the availability of resources, the availability of staff and the needs of other organisations may affect the intended or normal running order of the day.

In short, what impinges on your day to alter what you originally planned to do?

My notes

Module 3

My first experiences at work

Think back to your own first experiences in your current work.

Question	My notes
Were you made to feel inferior, useless, in the way? If so, how?
Were you helped to become a useful colleague? If so, how?
What were the experiences you now consider to have been influential in your development? Who or what produced these?
Did you feel intimidated by the environment?

Module 3

Others' first experiences at work

Think of the student/trainee that you will be supervising. They may or may not already be familiar with the work setting. What will their first experiences in the work environment feel like?

Question	My notes
What does this workplace look like if the person is seeing it for the first time?
What does it feel like being a stranger here?
If this is their usual workplace, how does it feel being a student here too?
What sort of person is the student?
What experience do they have of the work?
What do they know already?
What do they need to know?

Module 3

Confidentiality

Think about your role as a professional supervisor in relation to confidentiality.

How would you explore this with the student? Where would you go for support if you were uncertain about a sensitive issue raised during a supervision session?

My notes

Module 3

Valuing and managing emotions

How do you value and manage emotions in your own practice?

How does this affect your practice as a supervisor?

My notes

Module 3

Dealing with conflict in relationships

How easy do you find it to deal with difficulties and conflict in relationships?

How can you prepare yourself to deal with potential conflict in professional supervision?

My notes

Module 4

SWOT analysis

Use the chart on the next page to fill in as many features of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to you as a professional supervisor as you can.

Use the checklist of ideas to help you. Include as many things as you can, even if you think that some of them are quite similar. If you aren’t a Professional Supervisor at the moment, then imagine you are in the role and do the same activity.

A Checklist for Professional Supervisors These are only suggestions to get you started. They’ve been taken from ideas by a variety of professional groups. Strengths might be: personal strengths, communication skills, and so on. Weaknesses might be: a lack of confidence, feeling that you can’t express difficult issues as well as you’d like, or a recognition that you don’t always listen to colleagues very carefully. Opportunities might be: studying, examining your own work again, developing more communication skills, these course materials, going on a course, or talking to colleagues. Threats might be: lack of time or resources, or understaffing.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Opportunities	Threats

Module 4

Offering support

Think back to the last time that you were with a colleague and you found yourself offering them support. Play the scene over in your mind and write an account of it. As a starting point, think about what went on, who said what, and how you saw yourself as offering support.

My account	Notes

Now compare your SWOT lists with this account. Try to find an instance of each of the features you listed under the headings Strengths and Weaknesses. Mark sentences in your account with an S or a W (or use the Notes column) if you think they indicate particular strengths or weaknesses. Now try opening this up and go through the same process with Opportunities and Threats, i.e. by marking sentences with an O for Opportunities (incidents which could provide a learning opportunity) or a T for Threats where issues or incidents hindered you from providing learning or support.

Module 4

Progressive focusing

Keeping the progressive focusing diagram in mind, where does supervising lie on it for you?

My Notes

Module 4

The pitfalls of not listening

Make an assessment of your own listening skills by indicating whether you fall into these traps often, at times or never.

Pitfall	Often	At times	Never
Overemphasising bad news
Ignoring good news
Closing your mind to the message in advance
Interrupting the other person’s flow
Allowing yourself to be distracted by what’s going on around you
Trying to hurry people by finishing their sentences for them
Assuming you know what they are going to say before they say it
Focusing on facts and ignoring other aspects of a message
Failing to pay enough attention
Thinking about your own input instead of listening

Looking at what you have recorded here, what are the main listening areas you need to work on and how will you do this? Record your thoughts below.

My notes

Module 4

Open and closed questions

Write down four open questions which might be useful to you in trying to assess your student/trainee’s intentions when discussing an event they have brought to supervision. Then write beside each one the equivalent closed question. An example has been included to start you off.

	Open question	Closed question
	"How do you think the conversation with that customer went?"	"Don’t you think it would be a good idea to make sure that you talk to customers somewhere private?"
1
2
3
4

Module 4

Improving communications

How can you communicate with the trainee/student in a way that makes them feel respected and heard?

What techniques and approaches could you use with the student if they appear to be finding it difficult to communicate with you?

My notes

Module 4

More about learning styles

Think about how you yourself learn. How do you learn best? What different experiences have you got of helping other people to learn? How could you try to meet the student’s individual learning needs and learning styles in supervision?

Question	My notes
How do you learn best?
What different experiences have you got of helping other people to learn?
How could you try to meet the student’s individual learning needs and learning styles in supervision?

Module 5

Creating a supportive environment for supervision

How might you create a supportive environment for supervision?

My notes

Module 5

Setting up the first meeting

Consider these questions when you are setting up your first supervision meeting.

Question	My notes
What do you need to negotiate and clarify before you first meet with the student/trainee? How will you set about doing this?
What would you expect the student/trainee to have planned and prepared before the first supervision session?
How will you negotiate the agenda for supervision?
How do you plan to structure supervision sessions so that they are focused on the student/trainee’s learning and reflective practice?

Module 5

Newcomers

Make some notes on what helps and hinders newcomers who join the organisation.

Question	My notes
What helps newcomers to settle into their workplace?
What hinders newcomers from settling into their workplace?
How can other staff help them?
What can be done to make a newcomer’s first days in a new work setting more enjoyable?

Now think about the last person who came to your work setting and their early experiences there.

Question	My notes
Did staff take into account the newcomer’s past experiences?
Did the newcomer feel valued and respected?
How confident did the newcomer seem about their roles?
Do these experiences raise memories of your own experiences of being a newcomer?
Are the work settings described similar to your own?
What ideas do you have about changes you could make to your own work or arrangements in your work setting?

Module 5

Ajay's supervision session

As you listened to the audio clip could you identify times where Ajay and his supervisor moved between the four quadrants of the Progressive Focusing model?

My notes

Module 5

Promoting professional practice

Consider a recent supervision- type situation in which you have been involved. Ask yourself what types of knowledge your student/trainee was using and developing as a result of the incident. You may want to consider knowledge under headings such as:

• 
  professional knowledge
  
• 
  practical/technical skills
  
• 
  interpersonal knowledge.
  

Now think about the extent to which you contributed to the student/trainee’s development of these various forms of knowledge.

Type of knowledge	Examples	How I contributed
Professional knowledge
Practical/technical skills
Interpersonal knowledge

Module 5

Ending supervision

Think about how you might end your supervision of your current student/trainee (or how you finished supervision with a student/trainee previously).

Question	My notes
What might you discuss in your final session with a current or previous student/trainee?
Does the course for which you are a supervisor have any formal requirements for this session?
What on-going support can you anticipate for your current student?

Module 5

Looking ahead

Think about the areas of practice that your student/trainee wants or needs to develop from this experience. How might they continue to receive the benefits of the supervision process they have been through with you?

Question	My notes
What areas of practice does your student want / need to develop from the experience of supervision?
How might your student continue to receive the benefits of supervision in their continuing professional development?

Module 6

Collecting material for portfolios

Think about the materials that you could collect for a portfolio. You will find it helpful to structure your data collection, and a sample form has been included here for you to use.

As a reminder, these are the examples you have already seen:

• 
  Examples of work undertaken, such as forms completed, work reports written, notes taken at a meeting, minutes of a meeting or presentations written by the portfolio owner, etc.
  
• 
  Reflective accounts of interactions at work- with customers, colleagues, managers. These can be informal notes.
  
• 
  A work diary with details of work undertaken.
  
• 
  E-mails written and received
  
• 
  Formal records of events, such as presentations attended, minutes of meetings attended, etc.
  
• 
  Real examples of work completed, such as a marketing plan, PR materials, a questionnaire, a personal fitness plan for a client, etc.
  
• 
  Evidence of managerial supervision, coaching and appraisal outcomes (with appropriate permissions).
  

Process recording form

Date of session:

	Questions	My notes
Description of session	Who was involved (an individual, a group or a community)? What happened? What went according to plan, and what was improvised?
Reflections	Why, in your view, did the session happen the way it did? Did the work raise any dilemmas or problems for you or for others? What influenced your approach or decision?
Short-term implications	What are the implications for what you do now with this work? What does this experience tell you about such situations in general? How does this link to any theories you have learnt about? What are your short-term development needs, and what support will you need or have available?
Long-term implications (if any)	What do you take away from this experience for your future work? What are the implications for your organisation and the wider context? Are there any gaps in your understanding that need to be filled?

Module 6

Using portfolios

Think about what the weaknesses might be of using a portfolio to demonstrate achievement, to demonstrate knowledge and as a place to write about good practice.

Question	My notes
Can you think of a weakness of using a portfolio to demonstrate achievement?
What might be the weaknesses of using a portfolio to demonstrate knowledge?
What are the weaknesses of viewing a portfolio as a place to write good practice?

Module 6

Portfolios and formal assessment

If you or your student/trainee use portfolios now, to what extent do they fulfil the functions to demonstrate achievement, to demonstrate knowledge and as a place to write about good practice?

Aspect	My notes
To demonstrate achievement
To demonstrate knowledge
As a place to write good practice

Module 6

Work in progress

How comfortable are you with the messiness that reflects a “work in progress”? Do you put preliminary notes and feedback into your portfolio?

My notes

Module 6

Using a lens of observation and description

Make some notes about a recent episode where you were actually making an assessment of what a student/ trainee was doing. (If you are new to the role of supervisor/mentor, think instead about an occasion when you made an assessment informally of a colleague or some-one you manage at work.)

Use these prompts to help you.

Describe the range of people involved: staff clients others. Describe organisational structures and processes: routines procedures mechanisms. Describe resources

Question	My notes
What happened?
Who was there?
What was the outcome?

Module 6

Using a lens of analysis and evaluation

Consider the episode again and look at your own performance in assessing the student/trainee’s piece of work.

Question	My notes
What was I looking for here?
How did I ‘do’ the assessing?
What went well?
What could have been improved?
Should I have done it in a different way?

Module 6

Using a lens of synthesis and speculation

Return to your incident yet again.

Question	My notes
What would have helped you to do it differently?
What change(s) can you make for the future?

Module 6

Supervision tensions

What might be some of the differences between professional and line management supervision?

Question	My notes
What might be some of the differences between professional and line management supervision?
How could you explore these differences with the student as you begin professional supervision, particularly if you are also their line manager?
What do you think is and isn’t the business of professional supervision?

Module 7

Looking back at supervision

Now that you have come to the end of the process, you may find it useful to spend some time reflecting on your experience as a professional supervisor and identifying any implications for your future work practice and learning. You can use the questions here to help you do this and, if you have kept a written record of your experience, you may want to use that as a further aid to reflection.

Question	My notes
What were your initial expectations before you took on the role of professional supervisor, and have these been met?
In what ways was the reality of the experience different from your expectations?
What might you do differently in the future?
What have you learnt that has been particularly successful, which you would like to transfer into your future work practice?

Module 7

Development plan and learning contract

Identify between three and five skills that you intend to develop. Transfer these skills into your development plan below.

In order to decide how to progress your development for each skill, identify:

• 
  The action you intend to take
  
• 
  Your success criteria
  
• 
  A start date and a target date for completion.
  

Enter these details into your development plan.
Once you have finished your development plan and learning contract, you might like to discuss your skills audit, needs analysis and the plan with your line manager.
An example has been included, in italics, to help you get started.

Skill needed	Action to be taken	Success criteria	Start date	Finish date	Evidence
How to search electronic databases to access relevant literature	Complete relevant activities in Session 2	Identification of relevant literature	19 August	31 August	List of key words. List of papers found, showing where you read the abstracts. List of papers where you went on to read the full paper.