Module 1 Introduction

Research and empirical evidence concepts are placed in the context of social work practice and intervention at all levels of practice. The topic of research ethics is addressed in the context of social work practice and research on interventions. Intervention research is critically important to social work practice because good intentions are not enough: interventions can be helpful, they can fail to be helpful, some interventions are more effective than others, and sometimes they actually are harmful. Social workers have an ethical responsibility to be accountable and to engage with evidence to ensure that the best possible outcomes are realized when we intervene. Evaluating social work practice is about learning to ask and answer these types of questions about social work intervention.

READING OBJECTIVES

After engaging with this module’s reading and learning resources, you should be able to:

• Relate basic social work research concepts to social work intervention research;
• Understand the principles of evidence-based and evidence-informed social work practice;
• Identify the role of evaluation in social work practice;
• Explain ethical issues that might arise specifically with intervention research studies;
• Define key terms related to social work research and research ethics.