SOWK 546 – Science of Social Work

Assignment 2 Guidelines

Locating PracticeInformation &Knowledge

(100 POINTS)

Aims of Assignment

The overarching aim of Assignment 2 is to enhance student’s ability to effectively and efficiently locate practice information and knowledge relevant to specialized practice in areas of interest that are consistent with students’ professional goals and aspirations as identified in the first assignment. Specific aims of this assignment include the following:

1) To guide students’ exploration of different sources of information and knowledge relevant to practice questions.

2) To broaden students’ awareness of the following:

a. Leaders who have made contributions in students’ areas of interest;

b. professional organizations and groups relevant to students’ areas of interest;

c. academic and non-academic resources relevant to students’ areas of interest, including policies, databases, public use datasets, and statistical information; and

d. international sources of information and knowledge relevant to students’ areas of interest.

3) To enhance student’s ability to locate practice information and knowledge—including theoretical, epidemiological, and empirical knowledge—and their ability to appraise the quality of sources of peer-reviewed journals using impact factors.

4) To help students build their practice “libraries,” that is, their collection of professional information, publications, resources, and materials.

Format & Approach

Locating and using existing knowledge—especially empirical (i.e., research) knowledge—is an essential skill that you will need as a professional social worker in order to make ethical and evidence-informed practice decisions. In fact, almost every aspect of your work as a professional social worker can be enhanced by your ability to effectively and efficiently locate and use existing information and knowledge. This includes using existing information and knowledge to guide the following professional activities:

• Assessing your client’s strengths and needs;understanding and interpreting the meaning of your clients’ behavior;establishing intervention, treatment or case plan goals;

• understanding how cultural factors (including but not limited to race, ethnicity, nationality, immigrant status, gender, sexual orientation, class, [dis]ability status, and age) intersect with one another to affect your clients’ development, behavior, and outcomes;

• determining the best interventions, services, and programs to address your client’s needs; 

• developing strategies for engaging your clients in interventions, services, and programs (and keeping them engaged);

• determining how best to assess implementation and effectiveness of interventions, services, programs, and policies;

• conducting organizational or community needs assessments;

• developing program reports and grant proposals for funding; and

• carrying out program evaluations or being involved in research studies.

At some point in your career, the activities listed above will almost certainly be part of your everyday life as a professional social worker. And again, every single one of them can be enhanced by your ability to effectively and efficiently locate and use existing information and knowledge.

The assignment consists of  locating sources of information and existing knowledge relevant to one of the practice questions that you formulated in Part 3 of Assignment 1, including data, empirical literature and other types of relevant information . 

In subsequent assignments, you will critique and synthesize information and knowledge related to the practice question that is the focus of the assignments. Ultimately, you will be asked to use the information and knowledge you obtain as a result of completing the assignments to answer the practice question around which the assignments revolve and to raise awareness about some aspect of the question and/or answer. 

Grading &Submission Guidelines

Assignment 2 comprises 20% of your final grade. Grading for the assignment will be based on a 100 point scale. Points will be based on (a) the presence or absence of a response to each assignment question or item, (b) the completeness of your response, (c) the thoughtfulness of your response, and (d) the clarity of your response. 

All assignments must be uploaded into the VAC platform. Emailed assignments will not be accepted. Use the following convention for naming your document for uploading:

[insert last name].[insert first name].546_Assignment2 

Learning Outcomes Addressed by Assignment 2

This assignment addresses the following student learning outcomes: 1, 2, 3, & 6.

Part 1. Locating Sources of Information & Existing Knowledge 

(75 points total)

Instructions

First, in the space below, specify the social work practice question that you plan to address this semester. The question you selected should be ONE of the four practice questions that you formulated in Part 3 of Assignment 1, with possible refinements based on your expanding knowledge of the science of social work. Feel free to revise your question as needed.  It is strongly suggested that you choose the question you formulated with regard to “Program/Intervention Impact,” since Assignment 3 (the subsequent assignment) is more directly aligned with the body of literature that evaluates the effectiveness of intervention. Please follow the direction of your instructor regarding this selection. 

Social Work Practice Question (please specify in the space below) (5 points):

Complete the rest of this assignment about the practice question you specified above. To complete the assignment, you will need to conduct a literature search to locate sources of information and existing knowledge related to the practice question that you formulated. Use APA formatting for references mentioned in your responses. The text-fill boxes will not easily allow hanging indents, so the paragraph structure does not have to include the hanging indent within the fillable boxes. All other aspects of APA 6th edition will be expected (correct content, order and online identifier included).