Publications from ODSW Social Work Supervsion | Page 33

Day 2 Keynote 1: West Meets East: Sharing of Supervisory Strategies and Skills – Dialogue and Demonstration – Part 1

2. There should be rational decision making and a fundamental understanding and
assessment of needs.
3. There should also be an awareness of learning motivations and a shared
responsibility between both parties over the supervision session.
4. There must be a basis of competence evaluation guiding the practice.
5. It is both necessary and pertinent that independent skills are developed.

Discussion
Prof. Tsui asked the participants if there were any points that they felt should be included
in the supervisory contract. The participants expressed that some of the points they felt
were pertinent were the learning goals, mutual expectations, the methodology of the
supervision, the setting and the roles and responsibilities of both the supervisor and
supervisee.
Questions to be Answered
Prof. Tsui expressed in response that some of the questions he felt should be answered
between the supervisor and supervisee in a supervisory contract include:
• What do we expect?
• What we can give each other?
• Are our goals the same?
• Can we achieve our goals?
• How can we achieve the goals?
• What are our constraints?
• How will we know when we have achieved our goals?
Agenda
The structure of the supervision session as recommended by Prof. Tsui restricts the session
to 90 minutes. He expressed that the attention span of a person usually lasts for 45min so
the session should be broken up into two 45 minute blocks with a 5 minute break in
between.
In the first part of the supervision, 15 minutes should be allotted to the sharing of feelings
about work by the supervisor and the supervisee. He indicated that the supervisor ought to
share first, so as to model openness and frankness. The supervisee will share after the
supervisor has shared. The supervisor should also be careful not to attempt to counsel or
“casework” the case worker. The supervisor should also be culturally sensitive. The next 30
minutes should be allotted to going over administrative reports. Thereafter, there should
be a 5 minutes break.
In the second part of the session, the focus will be on discussing practice related issues.
These issues should be suggested by the supervisee and the supervisee should have
prepared beforehand. The supervisee should therefore be responsible for the agenda in
the second part of the session. To end the session, the supervisor should ask if there is any
other business or issues that the supervisee would like to raise.

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