Middle Tennessee State University
Social Work Department
SW 3110: Research Methods for Social Work
Syllabus - Fall, 2007
John Sanborn, Peck Hall 356
Course Description
This course is designed to provide the student with an understanding and appreciation of a scientific approach to building knowledge for professional social work practice and evaluating practice in a variety of settings.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course the
student will be able to:
1. demonstrate improved skills which facilitate critical thinking and clarity
of expression;
2. conduct research in a manner consistent with accepted social work ethics;
3. demonstrate an understanding of the need to incorporate knowledge and skills
in social research as a part of the professional use of self;
4. produce and consume research processes to more effectively understand
discrimination and oppression and to advance social and economic justice;
5. understand the research process and employ research methods to develop more
effective means of practice;
6. demonstrate skills useful in the process of assessing the adequacy of policy
in relation to human needs and in taking planned action to develop and change
social policy;
7. demonstrate the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of practice in order
to contribute to the improvement of personal and agency helping processes;
8. demonstrate the ability to use existing research intelligently and to
generate original research in a variety of contexts, with diverse populations
and a wide range of issues.
These course objectives reflect the program objectives of the Middle Tennessee State University Social Work Department. Information on those objectives is available in the Social Work Department office in Peck Hall 109.
Course Requirements
1. There will be a quiz about every
five class sessions for a total of eight quizzes, as announced in class and
indicated in the course outline below. These will cover the assigned reading,
as well as the material covered in class up to the day of the quiz. This means
that any of the material presented in class since the beginning of the semester
may be on any quiz, not just the new material. This is necessary due to the
cumulative nature of the course. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped in
computing your quiz average. The quiz average will be one-half of the course grade.
2. There will be a final exam. This will be a take-home exam. It will be
comprehensive and will account for one-quarter of the course grade.
3. There will be an independent research project required of each student.
Details of this project will be made available in writing and through
discussions in class. The material in the text will be very helpful in
completing this project. Examples of excellent projects done by students in the
past are provided on the course website. A proposal for the project will be due
early in the semester; a draft of the first two steps of the project will be
due at midterm; the completed project will be due toward the end of the
semester. Specific dates will be announced in class and posted on the website.
Late assignments will be penalized five points each class date for the first
week, five points a week after that. The project will receive one grade and
will be one-quarter of the course grade.
4. The quiz average, exam grade, and project grade will be combined to
determine the course grade. Numerical grades will be converted to letter grades
on the following basis:
|
90 - 100 = A |
87 - 89 = B+ |
83 - 86 = B |
80 – 82 = B- |
77 – 79 = C+ |
Marginal grades may be raised in consideration of good class attendance and participation at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of C- or above is required for completion of BSW requirements.
Also, to retain Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship eligibility, you
must earn a cumulative TELS GPA of 2.75 after 24 attempted hours and a
cumulative TELS GPA of 3.0 thereafter. A
grade of B-, C, D, F, or I in this course may negatively impact TELS
eligibility. Dropping a class after 14
days may also impact eligibility. If you
withdraw from this class and it results in an enrollment status of less than
full time, you may lose your eligibility for your lottery scholarship. For additional lottery scholarship rules
please refer your Lottery Statement of Understanding form, review lottery scholarship
requirements on the web at http://scholarships.web.mtsu.edu/telsconteligibility.htm
or contact the MTSU financial aid office at 898-2830.
5. Attendance is strongly recommended. Absence will not be penalized except for the quizzes that you miss and material that you fail to receive if you are not in class. The first quiz that you miss due to absence for any reason may not be made up (it will be dropped in computing the quiz average). Additional quizzes missed may be made up if the absence is excused by the instructor.
6.
Course Outline
1. The Utility of Research in Social Work.
a.
Course
Introduction.
b.
Research
applications in social work
c.
Evidence-based
practice.
2.
Knowledge
for Practice.
a.
Nature
of scientific inquiry.
b.
Sources
of knowledge.
c.
Flaws in
unscientific sources.
d.
Review
and Quiz 1.
3.
Factors
Influencing Research.
a.
Several
important definitions.
b.
Purposes
of research
c.
The time
dimension in research.
d.
Review
and Quiz 2.
4.
Ethical
and Political Issues.
a.
Ethics
of research.
b.
Politics
of research.
5.
Culturally
Competent Research.
a.
Social
research as a tool of oppression.
b.
Research
for social justice.
c.
Culturally
competent research methods.
d.
Review
and Quiz 3.
6.
Literature
Review and the Research Question.
a.
Literature
review.
b.
Question
formulation.
7.
Conceptualization
and Operational Definitions.
a.
Conceptualization.
b.
Operational
definitions.
c.
Conceptualization
in qualitative inquiry.
d.
Review
and Quiz 4.
8.
Measurement.
a.
Sources
of measurement error.
b.
Reliability.
c.
Validity.
9.
Measurement
instruments.
a.
Questionnaire
construction.
b.
Indices
and scales.
c.
Qualitative
interviewing.
d.
Review
and Quiz 5.
10. Surveys.
a.
Survey
research methods.
b.
Needs
assessment.
11. Sampling Methods.
a.
Probability
sampling.
b.
Non-probability
sampling.
c.
Qualitative
sampling.
d.
Review
and Quiz 6.
12. Group Designs.
a.
Experimental
designs.
b.
Quasi-experimental
designs.
13. Program Evaluation.
a.
Evaluation
research.
b.
Formulating
the problem.
14. Single Case Designs.
a.
Single-subject
designs.
b.
Review
and Quiz 7.
15. Additional Methods in Qualitative Inquiry.
a.
Ethnographic
studies.
b.
Feminist
methods.
c.
Focus
groups.
16. The Use of Existing Data.
a.
Sources
of data for social workers.
b.
Methods
for using existing data.
c. Review and Quiz 8.
17. Course summary and evaluation.
18. Review for final exam.
Wednesday:
10:00 – 11:15 am
Tuesday and Thursday: 8:00 – 12:00
noon
I am also available at other times if
necessary. Please speak to me after class or call 898-2685 during these hours
if you need an appointment at another time.
Bibliography
Most of these titles are in the MTSU
library. They are a little difficult to find, as they are scattered, but you
will have the best luck using PALS to find the catalog number or checking the
361.0 section. There are several other good sources which are not listed here.
Alter and Evens. Evaluating Your Practice.
Arkava and Lane. Beginning Social
Work Research.
Bingham and Feldbinger.
Evaluation in Practice.
Bisman, Cynthia and David A. Hardcastle.
Integrating Research into Practice: A Model for Effective Social Work.
Engel, Rafael J.
and Russell K. Schutt. The Practice of Research in
Social Work.
Epstein and Tripodi.
Research Techniques for Program Planning, Monitoring,
and Evaluation.
Fischer, Joel and
Kevin Corcoran. Measures
for Clinical Practice: Volumes 1 and 2. (Second Edition)
Grinnell, Richard
and Yvonne Unrau. Social Work Research
and Evaluation. (Seventh Edition)
Karger, H. J. and Joanne Levine. The Internet and
Technology for the Human Services.
Marlow, Christine. Research Methods for Generalist Social Work.
(Second Edition)
Mika, Kristine L. Program
Outcome Evaluation: A Step By Step Handbook.
Monnette, Duane, Thomas Sullivan,
and Cornell DeJong. Applied Social Research: A Tool
for the Human Services. (Seventh Edition)
Polansky, Norman (Ed.). Social
Work Research. (Revised)
Reid and Smith. Research in Social
Work.
Rodwell, Mary K. Social Work Constructivist
Research.
Rossi and Freeman. Evaluation: A Systematic Approach.
Royce, David. Research
methods in Social Work. (Fourth Edition)
Rubin, Allen and
Earl R. Babbie. Research methods for Social Work.
(Sixth Edition)
Schuerman, John. Research and
Evaluation in the Human Services.
Tripodi, Tony, Phillip Fellin, and Henry Meyer. The Assessment of Social Research. Itasca, IL: Peacock Publishers, 1969.
Wechsler, et.
al. Social Work Research In the Human Services.
(Second Edition)
Williams,
Margaret, Yvonne Unrau, and Richard Grinnell, Jr. Introduction
to Social Work Research.
|
August 27 |
Classes Begin |
|
September 3 |
Labor Day |
|
October 13-16 |
Fall Break – no classes |
|
November 22-24 |
Thanksgiving Holidays – no classes |
|
December 5 |
Last Day of Classes |
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December 6 |
Study Day-no classes |
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December 15 |
Commencement |