Research and Evaluation in Social Work Practice

Catalog description

This course is designed to equip social work students with needed research literacy, knowledge and skills to engage in ethical and evidence-informed social work practice and evaluate programs. Through a social justice framework, students will build skills in locating, critically reviewing and using research to prepare for their professional roles as critical consumers of research to inform practice and program decisions. Students will be prepared to participate in a range of research activities including (a) conceptualization of research problems; (b) review of the literature; (c) evaluation of research design; (d) sampling; (e) selection of measurement tools; (f) data collection; (g) interpretation of data analyses and (h) ethical considerations in the conduct of research. Students will learn to identify and apply evaluation methods and use theoretical and conceptual models to develop a proposal for a practice or program evaluation.