FACILITATING THE STUDENT RESEARCH LEARNING EXPERIENCE THROUGH OF AGENCY BASED PRACTICE

FACILITATING THE STUDENT RESEARCH LEARNING EXPERIENCE THROUGH OF AGENCYBASED PRACTICEAuthor(s): Ray J. ThomlisonSource: Canadian Journal of Social Work Education / Revue canadienne d'éducation en servicesocial, Vol. 3, No. 3 (December/décembre 1977), pp. 32-35Published by: Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41668882 .

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EDUCATIONAL NOTES /NOTES PÉDAGOGIQUES FACILITATING THE STUDENT RESEARCH

LEARNING EXPERIENCE THROUGH OF AGENCY BASED PRACTICE'

Recent surveys of social work practitioners and students continue to indicate that they fail to effectively utilize research. Social Workers seem to acknowledge the value of research as an activity in social work but there is ample evidence that they do not use it as an adjunct to practice.2 3 In a more recent survey of 470 NASW members "56% indicated that they did not consult research material when confronted with a difficult practice situation".4 Other findings in this study were as distres- sing, albeit not surprising. For example, it was found "over two-thirds of the sample (68%) had not conducted a formal research project since leaving school".5 Only 56 of the 470 respon- dents had conducted more than four projects. Also, Kirk and Rosenblatt note:

Despite the general acceptance of the profes- sion's goals by social work researchers, despite the institutional support accorded to research to all levels of education, and despite social work leaders* advocacy of the importance of research, the actual utilization of research is disappointing. All available evidence indicates that students and practitioners find research courses of little use. They seldom continue reading research studies after graduation. They seldom consult research

2J. Eaton, "Symbolic and Substantive Evaluative Research**, Administrative Science Quarterly , Vol. 6(1962) 421-442.

3 A Rosenblatt, "The Practitioner's Use and Evaluation of Research", Social Work , Vol. 13 (January 1968) 53-59.

4S. Kirk, M. Osmalov, and J. Fisher, "Social Workers' Involvement in Research", Social Work , Vol. 21 (March 1976) 122.

5Ibid.

Ray J. Thomlison, D.S.W. Associate Professor Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto

ABREGE Reconnaissant que le*s étudiants et les

praticiens en service social continuent de sous- valoriser et de sous-utiliser la recherche, cette communication propose que les professeurs de recherche acceptent le défi de trouver d'autres moyens de transmettre la matière de la recherche. Tant que l'objectif principal de la formation en service social restera la préparation à la pratique, la recherche devrait se faire dans ce secteur.

La présente étude expose une méthode didactique qui a été expérimentée au cours des trois dernières années auprès d'étudiants en pratique clinique suivant un programme de M. S. S. de deux ans. Cette méthode s'appuie sur le principe voulant qu'un cours de recherche destiné à des étudiants en service social doit commencer à un point correspondant à leurs intérêts en tant que praticiens, c'-à-d. qu'il doit être axé sur la pratique. De plus, il faut que la recherche soit pertinente et emballante, qu'on la sorte de la salle de cours et qu'on la porte au sein de l'agence de service social. C'est dans ce contexte qu'on réussira à établir le plus clairement les liens existant entre la recherche et la pratique. Un troisième élément important est l'intérêt de l'instructeur. Celui-ci doit être en mesure de communiquer son goût et son enthousiasme à propos de son travail. La meilleure façon de faire valoir cette attitude consiste à choisir un projet de démonstration correspondant très étroitement au secteur d'intérêt de l'instructeur.

La coordination de ces trois éléments et la recherche de l'application d'une modalité clinique sont envisagées dans le contexte des points forts et des risques de cette méthode.

'The author would like to thank the Metro Children's Aid Society and Huntley Youth Services of Toronto for their cooperation in carrying out the projects reported here. A special thank you to Mr. Paul Michaelis, Mr. Michael Blugerman and Mrs. Sheila Newton-Smith for their much appreciated assistance.

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for any instructor to be excited about the material he/she is teaching, it is argued that the area to be researched should be related to an area of interest of the instructor. While this is true for any aspect of the curriculum it is perhaps even more so in teaching research where students' motivation toward the learning task may be somewhat lower. Commenting on their findings, Kirk and Rosenblatt observed that "it is always assumed that they (instructors) are interested in the research course that they are teaching. The evidence obtained shows that if this is so, they fail to convey that interest to students".7 A third assumption related to this approach is that the student- practitioner must see the practice research integrated with social work practice. In other words, research must be demonstrated to be more than an "academic" activity. It must be a practice activity that can be shown to be carried on in a social work practice setting by social work practitioners evaluating their work with clients.

The research requirement at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work is a three term course beginning in Year I and ending at the mid-point of Year II. The three terms are geared toward the learning of research methodology and data analysis through the production of a group research project.8 Group size varies between 10 and 18 members. The students enrolling in the class must contract with the instructor to engage in

findings when they need help in solving practice problems.6

There is little doubt that a major responsibility for this attitude toward research by social work practitioners must be shouldered by the educational institutions who are in the business of teaching research. It would appear to be a fair assumption that the posture assumed toward research by a practitioner of social work is going to be determined to a major degree by his / her educational experience in learning social work research. If the assumption of responsibility is valid, we certainly have every reason to push for greater attention being given to teaching methods in research. The direction of change must recognize the need to cap- ture the attention of the learner and to encourage the maintenace of this interest by demonstrating the connec- tion between research and what the student is doing (or about to do) with clients.

Three major assumptions underlie practice-based research. Firstly, it is assumed that it is most advantageous to begin where students are in relation to their objectives in social work education. In this respect, better than 70% of the student positions at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work are reserved for students concentrating in clinical practice. Having chosen this area of the curriculum to concentrate their studies, it is reasonable to expect that the student's research learning would be more relevant if it were to take place within the context of this primary interest. Secondly, since it is important

6S. Kirk and A. Rosenblatt, "Barriers to Students' Utilization of Research", Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Phoenix, Arizona, (March 1977), p. 2.

7Kirk, S. and A. Rosenblatt, "Barriers to Students' Utilization of Research", Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Phoenix, Arizona, (March 1977), p. 7.

8Some selected students are given the opportunity to produce an individual research project.

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focus primarily on the practice procedures but connections are easily made to the research tasks at hand. The clinical programme is time limited and, of course, must be terminated as close to the end of term as possible.

Term III (September-December, Year II) is reserved for follow-up data collection, data analysis and report writing. As with any group project, subgroups are delegated specific responsibilities at this time and an attempt is made to cater to individual interests and expertise. For example, students who have little interest in data analysis will opt for writing certain sections while data analysis is done by those interested in that aspect of research.

At the point that the research group begins to formulate its research design and identify the clinical population to be worked with, the instructor opens negotiations with an agency which serves as a practicum setting. The agency agrees to refer clients to the research project and interested staff are recruited to provide the service. In return the agency social workers are trained in the practice modality at the same time as the students are trained. Also, the instructor meets with the agency personnel to explain the project. This explanation is followed by a presentation to interested staff, on the clinical modality to be employed in the research project.

The selection of the practice modality to employ in the research project must meet the following criteria. It must be relatively less complex to learn than most modalities. It must be easily operationally defined. It must be relevant to client needs, student interest and instructor interest and be consistent with the agency's service delivery.

In order to facilitate the learning task the instructor employed training

researching a clinical area of social wòrk practice. In return for the commitment to a pre-defined research project, the instructor agrees to teach the students the particular area of clinical intervention which will serve as the major independent variable in the study. For example, over the past two research projects, the clinical programme has required one group of students to learn parent training procedures and another group to learn assertive training procedures with adolescents. Between September and December of Year I the research student group must complete their research proposal. The proposal must include the literature review, the research questions, and the research methodology. The content of the research seminars is designed to facilitate the completion of this first term assignment.

At about the fourth week in the first term the -instructor begins training the students in the clinical modality. In the initial weeks this is fitted into the two hour class session along with the research content of the class. During the months of December and January the clinical training takes over as a major input.

In the second term (January-April), the research questions are refined and the instruments for data collection identified. During this period, a clinical sample is identified and (under super- vision) selected students implement the clincial intervention. Other students are assigned data collection tasks. All students have an opportunity to observe the implementation of the clinical programme at some point during the project by sitting in as observers. Each week the students who are the therapists, together with the observers, report their observations back to the total group. These observations initially

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manuals detailing the procedures for each of these modalities. The manuals were used by both the students and agency personnel in conjunction with instructor led demonstrations and reading assignments. It is important to note that the manuals were developed for other purposes beyond the research projects and were consistent with the instructor's own practice interests. As the students become immersed in this training phase, the research questions (hypotheses), methodological issues, and data collection methods begin to emerge quite naturally. Evaluation at this point is based primarily on the observations of the instructor, feedback from the students, and feedback from the agency personnel associated with each of the two projects. From the students' perspective, this approach has been rated positively. It has provided them with an opportunity to learn basic research skills within the context of learning and applying a clinical intervention. Motivation for completion of assignments has been high and there has been ready willingness to work well beyond the hours normally required for a two hour research seminar. From the agencies' feedback it appeared that many advantages were derived. The most valued aspect seems to be the staff

development component. Social workers directly involved in the project felt positive about the addition of another interventive skill to their practice repertoire. From the point of view of the instructor, this method of delivering research content has been most reward- ing. It is personally appealing as it deals directly with social work clientele and confronts issues in practice related research. While it is recognized that analogue studies might allow for some of the same issues to be handled, it is doubtful that social work students would be as impressed as they are with the actual field research dealing with actual clients. This is where the research questions arise and where they must ultimately be answered.

While the motivation on the part of the students was high and agency cooperation was exceptionally good, there is no hiding the fact that the teaching method places a somewhat higher demand on the instructor. Beyond the extra teaching load required to teach the clinical modality to students and selected staff, there are the negotiations with the agencies and the inevitable pragmatics of coordinating the time schedules of all persons involved.

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FACILITATING THE STUDENT RESEARCH LEARNING EXPERIENCE THROUGH OF AGENCY BASED PRACTICE