Aims of Assignment
The overarching aim of Assignment 2 is to enhance your ability to locate and appraise different types and sources of information and knowledge relevant to specialized practice in your area of interest, consistent with your professional goals and aspirations effectively and efficiently. Specific aims of this assignment include the following:
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- To guide your exploration of different types and sources of information and knowledge relevant to your professional interests and practice knowledge needs.
- To enhance your ability to locate relevant practice information and knowledge easily and quickly; including theoretical, epidemiological, and empirical knowledge.
- To strengthen your capacity to effectively use evidence hierarchies and Impact Factors to determine and locate the best available evidence for addressing specified practice problems and questions; and
- To help you build your practice “library,” that is, your collection of professional information, publications, resources, and materials.
Locating and using existing knowledge—especially empirical (i.e., research) knowledge—is an essential skill that you will need as a professional social worker to make ethical and research-informed practice decisions. In fact, almost every aspect of your work as a professional social worker can be enhanced by your ability to locate, appraise and use existing information and knowledge effectively and efficiently. 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 care 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 development, behavior, and outcomes.
- determining the best interventions, services, and programs to address your target population’s needs.
- developing strategies for engaging your target population 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 presented 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 locate, appraise, and use existing information and knowledge effectively.
Assignment 2 consists of locating sources of information and existing knowledge relevant to the EFFECTIVENESS practice questions that you formulated in Assignment 1. Throughout this course, you will learn a core set of scientific and research related concepts and terminology that you are expected to understand and apply in the final part of Assignment 2, which consists of a critical appraisal of a peer-reviewed journal article describing an empirical research study. Whereas in Assignment 2 you will focus on locating and appraising the overall level of evidence in the existing body of empirical research, in the final assignment for the course, you will be expected to critically appraise the quality and applicability of evidence obtained from a single empirical research article and study related to the effectiveness practice question that is the focus of the assignments. Ultimately, you also will be asked to apply the best available empirical research evidence for the effectiveness practice question you are addressing to improve professional social work practice within your specialized area of interest.
Format & Approach
As with the previous assignment, Assignment 2 uses a worksheet format to provide you with structured guidance and opportunities to enhance your knowledge and skills. The assignment consists of three parts. The first part of the assignment involves locating various types and sources of information and existing knowledge. The second part of the assignment involves locating and ranking empirical research publications. Finally, the third part of the assignment asks that you critically appraise the level of evidence offered by empirical research publications.
Grading & Submission
Assignment 2 comprises 35% of your final grade. Grading for the assignment will be based on a 100-point scale. Points for each item are identified within the assignment. The total number of points earned will then be converted into a 35-percentage 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; (d) the clarity of your response; and (e) the degree to which you appropriately AND correctly apply key concepts and terminology.
Please note that your grade for Assignment 2 is independent of your grades for other assignments in the course.
Learning Outcomes Addressed by Assignment 2
This assignment addresses the following student learning outcomes: 3 – 4.
Part 1. Locating Types and Sources of Information & Existing Knowledge
(25 points total)
This assignment requires you to address the practice question you formulated in Part 3 of Assignment 1 that relates to the EFFECTIVENESS of an intervention, program, or policy. Based on the feedback provided by your instructor on Assignment 1, feel free to revise your effectiveness practice question as needed.
- To begin, please specify the social work EFFECTIVENESS Practice Question you are seeking to answer. Your practice question should be formatted using the PICO framework and include each of the PICO components. (5 POINTS)
For example: Among ____________________, what is the effect of ____________________ on ____________________ compared with ____________________ ?
| Among elderly individuals facing homelessness, what is the effect of providing supportive housing plus mental health services on OUTCOMES compared with just providing supportive housing? |
Complete the rest of this assignment about the practice question you specified above. To complete the assignment, you will need to conduct an exhaustive literature search to locate different types and sources of information and existing knowledge to contextualize the practice question that you formulated. Use APA formatting for references mentioned in your responses.
Contextualizing Your Practice Question
- Professional Organization – Provide the name and link for a website for a national or international social work professional organization related directly to your practice question or one of the components of your practice question. Also, in your own words, provide a brief description of the organization and describe how the organization might be helpful to you and your professional development. Please note that for our purposes, professional organizations are not “agencies” or service providers, but rather, organizations that bring together, inform, and support particular groups of social workers or multidisciplinary professionals. (5 POINTS)
| Name: Link: Brief Description and How Helpful: |
Policy – Find and, in your own words, briefly describe a federal (i.e., national) or state level policy (i.e., law) related directly to your practice question or one of the components of your practice question. (5 POINTS)
| Policy Name and Reference: Brief Description: |
- Statistical Epidemiological Data – Provide two (2) important statistics related directly to your social work practice question. One statistic should be a point-in-time statistic related to the current size or scope of the problem, population or outcome addressed by your practice question. The other statistic should be an historical or trend statistic related to the size or scope of the problem, population or outcome addressed by your practice question. The latter statistic should provide a picture of how the size or scope has changed or stayed the same over time. Please provide the references for the sources of the statistics. (10 POINTS TOTAL)
- Current Point-in-Time Statistic (5 POINTS):
| Statistic: Reference: |
- Historical or Trend Statistic (5 POINTS):
| Statistic: Reference: |
Part 2. Locating Empirical Research Publications and Evidence (50 POINTS TOTAL)
Instructions
For this section, you are asked to locate and describe ten (10) empirical research publications related directly to your practice question. For purposes of this assignment, the publications you locate will constitute the “body of empirical knowledge” relevant to your practice question. You are also asked to place the publications into a hierarchy of evidence, as instructed below.
- Hierarchy of Evidence – Using the table template below (or the format provided by your instructor), summarize ten (10) publications that provide empirical evidence for addressing your effectiveness practice question (40 POINTS).
Your table should place the publications offering the highest level of evidence at the top of the hierarchy and the ones offering the lowest level of evidence at the bottom (10 POINTS). For each publication, include the following information (40 POINTS):
- Full reference (not in-text citation) using APA format, and
- Type of publication (e.g., peer-reviewed journal article, non-peer-reviewed journal article, book, book chapter, report, etc.).
For journal articles, also provide the following information:
- Type of evidence or study designed offered in the article (e.g., meta-analysis, systematic review, RCT, correlational study, case study, qualitative study, etc.), and
- Impact Factor for the journal and year in which the article was published. To locate the impact factor, refer to the journal in which the article was published or to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) website: https://jcr-clarivate-com.libproxy1.usc.edu/. If there is no impact factor for the publication, state the reason why.
Table 1. Hierarchy of Evidence Table (NOTE: Only the first ten (10) publications provided will be considered by your instructor.)
| Full Citation (using APA formatting) | Type of Publication (strongest to weakest) | Type of Evidence or Study Design (strongest to weakest) | Journal Impact Factor (highest to lowest) | |
| 1. | ||||
| 2. | ||||
| 3. | ||||
| 4. | ||||
| 5. | ||||
| 6. | ||||
| 7. | ||||
| 8. | ||||
| 9. | ||||
| 10. |
Part 3. CriticalLY Appraising LEVELS OF EVIDENCE
(25 points total)
Instructions
In this part of the assignment, you are asked to critically appraise the level of evidence offered by the empirical research publications presented in the hierarchy you created in the previous section. Answers should demonstrate your ability to critically apply key concepts and terminology and to incorporate course readings, content and discussions.
- In relation to your practice question, how strong is the LEVEL OF EVIDENCE offered in the collective body of publications that you described in the previous section (i.e., the “body of knowledge”)? Consider the type of practice question you are addressing as well as the types of publications in your hierarchy, the types of evidence and study designs offered in the publications, and the impact factors of the journals in your hierarchy. Critically discuss your answer. (10 POINTS)
| Strength: HighModerateLowInsufficient Critical Discussion: |
- Next, select the ONE article that provides the highest level of evidence for addressing your specified effectiveness practice question and provide the full citation for the article and a link to the article. The article you select will be the one that you critically appraise for Assignment 3. Please note the requirements for the article you select[1] (5 POINTS):
- The article should have been published in a peer-reviewed journal with an Impact Factor for the year it was published.
- The article should describe primary (i.e., original) research and data. In other words, the article you select and appraise MAY NOT BE a meta-analysis, systematic review, summary review, or secondary data analysis, even though these types of articles might be included in your hierarchy. (Use Correlational/Observational, Experiments & replications of experiments or Qualitative studies)
- The article should describe a group-based experiment or quasi-experiment that tests at least two different interventions, programs, policies, strategies, etc.
- The article should be no more than five (5) years old.
| Full Citation of Article: Link: |
- In relation to your practice question, how strong is the LEVEL OF EVIDENCE offered in the RESEARCH ARTICLE that you selected? Consider the type of practice question you are addressing, publication, evidence or study design, and the Impact Factor of the journal in which the article is published. Critically discuss your answer. (10 POINTS)
| Strength: HighModerateLowInsufficient Critical Discussion: |
Finally, provide a list of references for all materials referenced above in Parts 1 – 3 using correct APA 7th edition formatting.
[1] Your instructor may specify additional requirements.