Columbia University School of Social Work
 
T6501 Social Work Research

Overview and Rationale

Research is a crucial venue for social workers to develop, test, and refine professional knowledge and skills to enhance human well-being, alleviate poverty and oppression, and promote social and economic justice. This course is designed to help students understand and appreciate a scientific, analytic approach to building knowledge for practice and for evaluating service delivery in all areas of practice. Different theoretical bases and methodological procedures for social work research will be addressed, as will basic statistical procedures and technological advances in both quantitative and qualitative designs. Ethical standards of scientific inquiry will be emphasized, with attention to protecting and promoting the well-being of vulnerable and oppressed populations. Ultimately, students are expected to be able to access, critically evaluate, and appropriately utilize empirical research to inform and evaluate their practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Learning Outcomes

In this course, students will learn to . . .

1. Describe the scientific/analytic approach to knowledge building for practice, including problem formulation, development of intervention strategies, and evaluation of service delivery.
2. Describe the scientific research process which includes literature review, formulation of research question, development of research design, sampling strategies, measurement, data collection methodology, and data analysis plan.
3. Apply ethical standards of scientific inquiry, particularly with regard for protecting and promoting the well-being of vulnerable and oppressed populations and organizational and sociopolitical issues in agency-based research.
4. Apply the logic and process of scientific inquiry. Students should be able to: access, critically evaluate, and utilize existing research to formulate and conceptualize practice-related research questions.
5. Describe different world views related to sources of diversity and position in the social structure, e.g. race, class, and gender, and explain how these varying stances influence the formulation of research questions, methodological issues, and interpretation of findings.
6. Develop a modest research proposal.

Council on Social Work Education Core Competencies

This course contributes toward mastery of the following core areas of social work competency identified by the Council on Social Work Education.

Social workers . . .

• Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice.
• Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments.
• Engage diversity and difference in practice.
• Advance human rights and social and economic justice.
• Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research.
• Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.
• Assess individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
• Evaluate individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Core Content Themes

• History and Philosophy of Social Work Research
   
  • History of major research issues
  • Epistemological issues
  • Ethical standards and sociopolitical considerations
     
• Logic of Scientific Inquiry using Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches
   
  • Problem formulation
  • Conceptualization and derivation of hypotheses
  • Measurement
     
    • Measurement principles/standardized measures/diverse populations
    • Measures for policy practice and program evaluation
       
  • Sampling
  • Design
  • Data analysis
     
• Designs for Investigating Social Work Problems
   
  • Experimental/Quasi-experimental designs
  • Program evaluation
  • Surveys
  • Qualitative designs (e.g., case study, ethnography, focus groups, qualitative evaluation)
     
• Statistics/Data analysis
   
  • Basic descriptive and inferential statistics
  • Introduction to SPSS for data analysis