Evaluating Student's Readiness for Forensic Social Work: Confidence, Competence and Calibration

Background and Purpose: Forensic social workers need to be confident in conducting psychosocial assessments, identifying risks, managing conflict, implementing interventions, navigating services, monitoring/evaluation, and advocacy. Unlike the USA, Australia relies on generalist-trained social work graduates and does not provide opportunities for specialization within a master’s degree or post-graduate qualifications. Thus, generalist social workers in Australia are qualified for forensic positions, yet the work readiness of graduates to undertake such positions is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to explore the readiness of Australian social work students for forensic social work practice by assessing their confidence, competency, and calibration via a simulation-based learning activity.

Methods: The study used a quantitative, non-randomised pre-experimental design with a pre-and-post online survey via Qualtrics. Social work and criminology students (n=106) in Australia completed a survey with their pre-simulation confidence and answered 13 open-ended questions during and after the simulation. Created in partnership with a university in the USA, the simulation was a community corrections simulation designed to reflect the practice context of probation and parole with mock case file notes and an interview with a recently released client. The simulation included an ethical dilemma, risk and protective factors, and client resistance, agitation, and anger. Competency levels were scored based on a standardised simulation rubric with scores between 0-4 on each criterion, with scores of 3 and above being a ‘satisfactory’ demonstration of the skill.

Results: A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used to examine calibration, the relationship between participants’ confidence level and actual competence in individual forensic skills. Findings revealed that participants underestimated their performance with confidence being significantly lower than competency for the skills of applying theoretical knowledge (U=-6.180, p=<.001), de-escalation (U=-5.293, p=<.001), respectful communication (U=-4.647, p=<.001), forensic assessment skills (U=-3.573, p=<.001), and assessing risk (U=-2.407, p=.016). In contrast, participants overestimated their performance, with confidence being significantly higher than competency for the skills of identifying trauma (U=-6.171, p=<.001) and recognising an ethical dilemma (U= -4.032, p=<.001), showing a gap between student self-assessment of skills and those demonstrated in the simulation. No difference was found in assessing protective factors (U=-1.657, p=.098), indicating that confidence levels reflected performance.

Conclusions and Implications: Practice readiness refers to graduates' skills, knowledge, attitudes, and characteristics that enable them to successfully transition from higher education to the workplace. The findings highlight difficulties in operationalising theoretical knowledge into discernible forensic skills. The results highlight poor calibration with a disconnect between students’ self-reported confidence and their actual performance abilities in forensic case management skills. The gap between confidence and competence was most evident in recognizing and managing trauma. Calibration has yet to be comprehensively explored in c social work education, however, students self-assess their own competency for practice is essential reflective practice. It is recommended that education place a greater focus on adaptive learning and calibration to ensure that graduates have both confidence and skills to support clients within the criminal justice system.