Research Paper Part I (Problem Statement) (Due. W7)

Purpose: Students will: (1) explore practice interests to inform the development of research questions; and, (2) critically analyze published research as a guide to social work practice. This assignment is intended to help you develop knowledge and build skills in the area of using existing research evidence to inform your social work practice. More specifically, by completing this assignment, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in these key areas:

• Understanding the scientific      process and the use of scientific language in applied social science, as      well as a basic understanding of how to use research to inform and guide      social work practice.
• Understanding methods used      in inquiry related to both the development and testing of theory. 
• Ability to formulate      research questions addressing social work practice and/or the social and      economic wellbeing of clients and communities, and select appropriate      methods given those questions.
• Ability to review,      analyze, and critique published research, including the ability to      identify, compare, and contrast qualitative and quantitative designs and      methods.
• Ability to identify gaps      in the knowledge base and critically analyze the use of practice wisdom to      inform future research questions and studies to help fill those gaps.

Directions: 

Select an area of interest in social work practice and/or related to the social and economic well-being of a particular group of people within the larger population. Provide a brief but concise overview of your chosen topic including:

• Statement of area of interest
• Nature and scope of related problems or challenges in your area of interest 
• Historical development of problem definition, practice approaches, and related policies
• Contextual and societal factors that influence social work responses in the area of interest
• Summary that includes a clearly written problem statement and at least one operationally defined      research question. 
• The instructor will provide feedback for students to further improve the paper. Based on feedback, you use Part I as the first 4 pages of the final writing assignment (Part II). 

Format and other requirement: Assignment #4a, Part I should be no more than 4 type written pages, 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced. Citing sources of information is required in this assignment. Be sure to provide full APA formatted references.

• Provide citations and abstracts for at least 3 empirical studies.
• Required Textbook(s):

Rubin, A. & Babbie, E. (2016). Essential Research Methods for Social Work (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.  

Research Assignments

Assignment #4a: Research Paper Part I (Problem Statement)

Purpose: Students will: (1) explore practice interests to inform the development of research questions; and, (2) critically analyze published research as a guide to social work practice. This assignment is intended to help you develop knowledge and build skills in the area of using existing research evidence to inform your social work practice. More specifically, by completing this assignment, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in these key areas:
· Understanding the scientific process and the use of scientific language in applied social science, as well as a basic understanding of how to use research to inform and guide social work practice.
· Understanding methods used in inquiry related to both the development and testing of theory.
· Ability to formulate research questions addressing social work practice and/or the social and economic wellbeing of clients and communities, and select appropriate methods given those questions.
· Ability to review, analyze, and critique published research, including the ability to identify, compare, and contrast qualitative and quantitative designs and methods.
· Ability to identify gaps in the knowledge base and critically analyze the use of practice wisdom to inform future research questions and studies to help fill those gaps.

Directions:
Select an area of interest in social work practice and/or related to the social and economic well-being of a particular group of people within the larger population. Provide a brief but concise overview of your chosen topic including:
· Statement of area of interest
· Nature and scope of related problems or challenges in your area of interest
· Historical development of problem definition, practice approaches, and related policies
· Contextual and societal factors that influence social work responses in the area of interest
· Summary that includes a clearly written problem statement and at least one operationally defined research question.
· The instructor will provide feedback for students to further improve the paper. Based on feedback, you use Part I as the first 4 pages of the final writing assignment (Part II).

Format and other requirement: Assignment #4a, Part I should be no more than 4 type written pages, 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced. Citing sources of information is required in this assignment. Be sure to provide full APA formatted references.
· Provide citations and abstracts for at least 3 empirical studies.
· Discussion #2: Post your research question (not the paper) to the discussion board by Assignment #3: Human Subjects Tutorial

Purpose: As part of learning about the values and ethics of social work research, students will complete the human subjects tutorial available through CITI website.

Directions: Students may access the human subjects tutorial and directions for logging in at: https://about.citiprogram.org/en/homepage/. After completing the tutorial, you must save a pdf copy of your certificate of completion and email it to the instructor by the due date.

Assignment #4b: Research Paper Part II (Literature Review)

A. Final list of Empirical Studies

Directions:
Review the empirical literature in your area of interest that has been published in peer-reviewed journals. Focus on studies that have been published in the past decade, include both qualitative and quantitative research, and take an interdisciplinary approach by reviewing research in social work as well as related fields.
· Use your critical thinking skills and what we are learning about research in class to distinguish among the articles you locate in order to identify the top 5 or 6 studies that you appraise to be the strongest and most rigorous, and therefore the best guides for policy and practice in your area of interest. Abstract each of your “top” articles including a full APA reference, statement of the main research question or questions, identification of the research method and study design, description of the sample, measures and/or measurement instruments, methods of data collection and analyses, strengths and limitations, findings, and significance of findings to current social policy and/or social work practice.
Format and other requirement: You will need to:
· Provide the final list of empirical studies (minimum of 5), including an abstract of each article.
· Provide a draft of your literature review covering the main research question or questions, identification of the research method and study design, description of the sample, measures and/or measurement instruments, methods of data collection and analyses, strengths and limitations, findings, and significance of findings to current social policy and/or social work practice.
· Among your 5 empirical studies, include 1 qualitative study.
B. Research Paper Part II (Literature Review)

Directions:
· Integrate what you learn from each of these studies, and summarize the strengths and limitations of this research in your area of interest. In this section, discuss the relationship between what you learned from the empirical literature review and practice wisdom. Other topics you may address in this section of the assignment include the role of theory in the research you reviewed, the significance of this body of knowledge as a whole for social welfare policy and/or social work practice, and the inclusiveness of various sub-groups in the study samples.
· Provide a brief summary of “what we know” from the research you reviewed. Then identify what we don’t know on the basis of the empirical literature to date. Does the research you reviewed adequately answer the research question(s) you formulated in Part I of this assignment? For some groups of people or everyone? In one place or many places? Under what conditions? What additional studies need to be planned to further our knowledge in your area of interest?
· Given what you have learned, provide a description of gaps in empirical knowledge, and how these gaps could be addressed in the future. How could the research you have reviewed, and your identification of knowledge gaps, impact social work practice? How could future research be informed by social work practice?
Format and other requirement: Assignment #4b (Part II) should be no longer than 10 typed pages, 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced with one inch margins. Citing sources of information is required in this assignment. Be sure to provide full APA formatted references. The reference page and the summaries of 5~6 research studies do not count toward the 10 typed pages.
W2: Research interest

W7 Research Paper Part I: Problem Statement

W14 Research Paper Part II: Literature Review

W10 Research Paper Part II: Final list of empirical studies

W12 Human Subjects Tutorial

W4: Research interest