Columbia University School of Social Work
 
T7501 Clinical Practice Evaluation

Overview and Rationale

Building on principles of empirically-based social work, social scientific inquiry, and basic research methodologies, this course will reinforce and extend understanding of a scientific, analytic approach to building knowledge for strengthening practice and evaluating service delivery. Students are expected to draw on previously acquired knowledge about theory, problem formulation, measurement, and research design as they learn to formulate and analyze research questions using methodologies relevant to clinical practice.

By the end of the course, students will possess:

• Knowledge of the breadth of clinical case evaluation methods
• Skill in use of information from other practitioners and researchers to inform clinical practice and case evaluation
• Competence in implementing an evaluation plan
• Utilization of case evaluation findings to inform and receive feedback from stakeholders
• Understanding and an ability to address additional contexts and issues that shape clinical case evaluation

Learning Outcomes

In this course, students will learn to . . .

1. Articulate the differences between assessment, monitoring, evaluation, and evidence gathering in determining the impact of social work interventions.
2. Identify strengths and limitations of evaluation methods for different client problems and client systems.
3. Proficiently access multiple types of informational resources (e.g., computer-based technologies, practice guidelines, meta-analyses, professional meetings, and other colleagues).
4. Critically evaluate the internal/external validity of existing evidence.
5. Identify relevant clinical issues in cases and formulate researchable questions.
6. Operationalize relevant constructs in cases (e.g., client problems, goals, process) and collect empirical data.
7. Describe fundamental measurement concepts.
8. Appropriately tailor ideal evaluation plans to accommodate and overcome barriers and constraints.
9. Identify and use appropriate data analysis techniques to answer practice-relevant questions.
10. Formulate clinical decisions based on conclusions drawn from evaluation results.
11. Identify potential connections to larger practice implications.
12. Communicate findings from assessment and evaluation to clients, colleagues and others to advance mutual learning and decision making.
13. Demonstrate awareness and practice adherence to ethical standards of scientific inquiry, including those in the NASW Code of Ethics and university/agency Institutional Review Boards, especially with regard to the well-being of vulnerable and oppressed clients.
14. Demonstrate awareness of potential biases in evaluation methods with clients of varying ethnic, age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, physical and/or mental ability characteristics, and/or from high-risk, vulnerable and other disadvantaged groups.

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 . . .

• Identify as professional social workers and conduct themselves accordingly.
• Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice.
• Engage diversity and difference in practice.
• Evaluate individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Core Content Themes

Empirically-based social work as an ethical imperative

The act and process of using empirical data to inform, supplement, and drive social work practice confers tremendous advantages in social work practitioners' efforts to uphold, implement, and overtly demonstrate the ethical principles girding the profession. This course will examine how the use of existing evidence-based knowledge, collection, analysis, and presentation of clinical practice-based data allows the practitioner to maximally fulfill the following ethical principles as listed in the NASW Code of Ethics:

• Social workers' primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems.
• Social workers challenge social injustice.
• Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person.
• Social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships.
• Social workers behave in a trustworthy manner.
• Social workers practice within their areas of competence and develop and enhance their professional expertise.

Real-world applicability of clinical case evaluation methods

The scientific method is intended to generate the "strongest"—i.e., objective, impartial, reproducible, and reflecting or accurately modeling the underlying causal relationships—evidence and insight into course-relevant issues, such as "Is my practice effective?" "Why does this intervention work?" and "How can I strengthen or improve my work with this client [system]?" Nevertheless, resource availability, the complexities of people/practitioners-in-environment, and the state of the current knowledge base all impose a diverse and significant number of constraint upon the ability to implement the most rigorous scientific methods in the pursuit of clinical evaluation and insight. Furthermore, these constraints are highly variable over practitioners, setting, and time. Altogether, future social work practitioners must be able to implement and tailor evaluation methods to, at best, overcome these "real world" constraints or, at least, identify and implement an evaluation method that maximizes the amount of insight possible.

Conscientization: Social justice not just in the field, but also in the classroom

Work that enhances social justice involves the actively addressing inequities and disparities in access to opportunity and resources. Given that social work practice seeks to redress social injustices, combined with the design of this course as a parallel process of clinical case evaluation methods to be employed in the field, it stands to reason that the implementation of this course should avoid perpetration and propagation of the means of dominance, control, and oppression. This means that course activities will seek to model and hone professional skill that augments clients' input, self-determination, and partnership in the social worker-client relationship. This will be accomplished primarily via an "immersion" method whereby students will take on the role of social worker or client and work together throughout a significant portion of the course.

Furthermore, informed by the perspective described in Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this course seeks to implement—to the greatest extent possible while recognizing inherent constraints—a teaching/learning method that is a collaborative approach between students and instructor. Thus, many of specific class sessions will have content, examples, assignments, and course expectations that are informed by prior/current student input.

It should be noted that the anticipated increase in power and authority of students to determine many of the specifics of class activities leads to a concomitant increase in students' responsibility and accountability for demonstrating their learning and skills.