Glossary

Academic supervisor: faculty charged with overseeing a student's placement and progress in supervised field work and internships.

Accreditation: the status earned by a Program after the process of self study and review by the Accreditation Review Committee. The different levels of accreditation shall include:

ü Full accreditation: when the available evidence indicates that an applicant Program is in substantial compliance with all of the Standards of the Commission. Full accreditation is awarded for 5 years.

ü Provisional accreditation: when an applicant Program is in substantial compliance with most of the Standards of the Commission, and any deficiencies are such that they can be corrected within a short period of time. Provisional accreditation shall not exceed 2 years. During that time, if the Program can correct the deficiencies the Program will be awarded Full accreditation for the remainder of the 5-year accreditation period. If the deficiencies have not been corrected, the Program will no longer be accredited.

ü Probationary accreditation: when an already accredited Program experiences changes, which cause the Program to fall below the acceptable level of compliance with the Standards of the Commission. Programs on Probationary status will be given a maximum of 2 years to correct the problems that have caused them to fall below Commission Standards. If the Program successfully remedies the deficiencies, the Program will be restored to Full accreditation status. If the Program is unable to correct the deficiencies within the 2-year period, the Program will no longer be accredited.

Application: involves the interpretation and transfer of knowledge in support of the practice of sociology in local, state, national, or international contexts.

Basic scholarship: includes discovery of new knowledge and integration of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries.

Director: the person who is responsible to provide the ongoing direction and daily leadership for the operation and development of the program. Other titles that are often used include coordinator or chair.

Instructional development: includes research in support of the instructional efforts of the institution or discipline.

Learning outcomes: what a student knows and/or is able to do as a result of an educational experience.

Macro level: the unit of practice, which is designated as the social institutional or large social system level.

Meso level: the unit of practice which is designated as the organizational level.

Micro level: the unit of practice which is designated as the individual or small group level.

On-site supervisor: professional based in a formal agency, organization and similar workplace environment who is commissioned to work directly with interns in their work-site.

Portfolio: a means of measuring student learning outcomes in which the student presents a collection of his/her work along with a commentary on it; this work is to reflect what the student knows and is able to do, as well as the progression of knowledge and ability over the course of an educational experience.

Practice experience: internship, practicum, or field experience (the term used by a program to label its practice experience may vary; however, the key distinction is whether the experience is supervised off-site by an academic supervisor or on-site by an agency or organization employee.)

Practicum: supervised curricula emphasizing practical applications of theory, methods, skills, professional orientations, and ethics in a specialized area of study.

Professional development: a process of learning and keeping up-to-date in one's area of expertise.

Professional ethics: the principles and standards that underlie one's responsibilities and conduct in a particular field of expertise (profession).

Professional orientation: the attitudinal and behavioral characteristics of individuals that guide them as they fulfill their work related roles.

Program: any coherent sequence of courses and/or learning experiences within a department, or other administrative unit recognized by its institution, that has as its core the application of sociological knowledge, methods, and skills in a practice setting.

Quality control: the procedures put into place to continuously assess the performance of a program and if it is meeting the goals and objectives, as specified.

Reaccreditation: after the initial period of accreditation, a Program may apply for reaccreditation, which requires the same review process, but reaccreditation may be awarded for a period of up to seven (7) years.

Research methods: the various ways in which data can be gathered, organized, and analyzed, whether it be quantitative or qualitative data and data analysis.

Safety responsibility agreement: an agreement between an agency and student placed in the agency for a practice experience. This agreement specifies the extent of liability of each party as related to the safety of the student.

Supervised field work: applied or clinical sociological training overseen off-site by an academic supervisor.

Supervised internship: applied or clinical sociological training which is overseen in formal agencies, organizations, and workplace environments by on-site supervisors as arranged by an academic supervisor.