research week 1
TRANSCRIPT
747: Research II
January 29, 2008
Today’s topics:
questions to students research as a way of knowing evidence-based practice course aims research-practice connection review of syllabus
Questions to students:
Who was nervous about taking Research II? Who would have taken a different course if
Research II weren’t required? Who is interested in doing research as a SW? Who is interested in graduating with all the
required courses? Who is interested in becoming a better SW?
Questions to students
What conclusions can we draw? How legitimate would those conclusions be? Issues:
the order of the questions answering in front of others, including the instructor social desirability representativeness, generalizability
Think about:
What’s your understanding of why research is important?
Why is this class required?
Research is…
interesting (more importantly), research is…important
But, we’ll get to that!
Given that…
there is a lack of political will and interest in paying for every conceivable social service,
and some interventions could harm clients,
we must make decisions about what services to provide and to whom…
How do we make these decisions?
How do SWs make decisions?
Tradition Common Sense Authority
idea that people in positions of power and control know best
authority saying what is and how things should work
Popular media Scientific method
Potential problems in decision making: based on erroneous information, inaccurate observation overgeneralization selective observation (attend to one aspect)
ignore evidence that contradicts expectations pay attention to what confirms our suppositions attend to what learned first, last
illogical reasoning ending observation prematurely influence by others, the environment
bias and inaccuracy … lead to bad choices
Authority Based Knowledge…
comes from those in power and control. In SW, we want to decrease inequalities
based on imbalances in power and control.
Research…
attempts to reduce the biases and distortions that lead to bad choices.
is controlled and public.
In research, knowledge is gathered in a careful, deliberate, prescribed manner.
Evidence based on thorough observation is the basis for knowledge in research.
Ideally, research is a systematic, comprehensive, objective, amoral procedure for learning information and making decisions.
Research can tell us…
the most effective means to achieve social work goals.
Does this intervention work for this population? the way it was supposed to
work? Some proposed solutions can
actually HURT clients. How well does this intervention
work? What is the dosage necessary
to achieve the desired end?
the most efficient means to achieve SW goals.
For a given amount of money spent, how much change occurred?
How economical or expensive was it to provide this service, good, etc.?
Remember:
SWs seek to maximize benefit to clients not using all of the information or using
misinformationclients harmed rather than helped false hopeeffective methods foregone
Research is not all roses…
Biases will leak into research. But research methods should be
described in a way so that consumers of research can:1. detect/identify biases and flaws, and 2. replicate the research.
Peer review and the public nature of research adds layers of protection.
Research is the best option we have!
Evidence-Based Practice
What is it?
Evidence-Based Practice…
explicit use of current best available external evidence
based on systematic, valid, reliable empirical research findings
to make decisions about assessments and interventions.
Course Aims:
critical consumer of research
better practitioner by using evidence-based
practice
“Why is research important for SW practitioners?”“Is this valid, reliable, scientifically-sound research?”
“Can the findings from this research improve my practice?”
How will we achieve the aims of the course? in-class
PowerPoint slides writing exercises in–class attendance, punctuality demonstration of SPSS
out of class readings by content area text assignments email: [email protected] by appointment
How will you be evaluated?
research proposalread the assignmentnext class: hand in questions to instructor
2 written SPSS assignments exam – take home not in-class
Please write…
your concerns about this course your questions about this course what you’d like to address that wasn’t
mentioned anything you’d like more information about