Students can find the academic requirements of performance-style assessment hard to interpret and educators have been called on to provide explicit articulation for the support of academic, critically reflective assignments. This paper discusses the development of a flexible learning workbook for post-qualifying social work (PQSW) students, undertaken in response to these issues. The development of the workbook began with the aim to provide such explicit articulation, focusing on two intended learning outcomes—applying theory to practice and being critically reflective—which can appear to students to be vague and unclear terms. Key activities were identified for each of these outcomes and aligned to relevant assessment criteria within frameworks to show the student exactly what is required in order to demonstrate their abilities in these areas. The main activities within the workbook allow students to interact with three examples of writing by analysing and applying assessment criteria to them, i.e. assessing the levels of critical reflection and application of theory to practice in each. Students are then encouraged to apply the learning gained to their own assignments and self or peer evaluate their work. This ongoing project has also been informed by focus group research as part of a commitment to the scholarship of teaching and learning.