Class Descriptions

SW819

Special Seminars in Evidence-Based Practice with Individuals, Families and Groups

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
Content of these seminars vary, in keeping with faculty and student interests in emerging issues relating to evidence based practice with individuals, families, and groups on the macro or micro level of intervention. These seminars can cover theoretical and empirical underpinnings, key research questions and gaps in knowledge, ethical and value issues, and ethnic, gender, minority, and social-class factors.
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SW823

Comparative Cross National Analyses of Social Service Systems

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
This course focuses on exploring and applying a structure for the comparative cross-national study of social services. It is intended to provide a common basis for developing comparisons and providing students with the opportunity to explore how a particular area of social services has developed and been implemented in a country of their choosing. The course will start with an exploration of the parameters for understanding and comparing national approaches to social services. These parameters include, but are not limited to, the resources/wealth of a country, the role of national/local government, cross-national influences, and the relevant religious and societal values in a country. In developing comparative perspectives on the realities of social service provision, emphasis will be placed on understanding challenges of implementation and gaps between policies and practice. Examples of social service areas that students will be encouraged to pursue include income security, protecting vulnerable populations, criminal justice, child care/adoption, health care, disability policy, and employment/labor rights.
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SW825

Historical and Contemporary Issues in Social Work and Social Welfare

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
This course centers on the examination of the purposes of social welfare and social work and how they have reflected different philosophical and ideological positions, diverse class, racial, ethnic, and cultural perspectives, and the particular historical contexts in which they emerged. It covers long standing conflicts and tensions in the field such as the role of social responsibility vs. social control, how needs are recognized and determined, the nature of helping, perspectives on social justice and charity, the professional role of social workers, and organizational arrangements for social work and social welfare. The focus of this course is on the development of U.S. social welfare and social work with a comparative, cross-national and multicultural lens.
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SW829

Special Seminars in Social Service Systems

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
These seminars cover variable topics related to faculty and student analysis of critical and emerging issues. Related to specific social problems and to social services systems established to address these problems. Possible topics include: care-giving in post industrial society; privatization of social service system; social control and the social services; special problems and/or populations; deinstitutionalization and the development of community-based care; women, work, and welfare; and comparative analysis of social service systems.
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SW831

Research Methods for Evaluating Social Programs and Human Service Organizations

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing, one grad level stats course, and a basic understanding of bivariate analysis, including correlation, or permission of instructor. Also recommended is a rudimentary understanding of instrument construction and data collection procedures.
Description:
This course focuses on the theoretical and strategic issues in designing and implementing formative or summative evaluations. The scope will include methods of evaluation appropriate for the study of social programs, human service organizations, inter-organizational relationships; and similarities and differences from methods used for basic knowledge development. The analysis of alternative evaluation models, procedures, and techniques and issues in the design, implementation, and utilization of evaluation research will also be addressed. Topics may include: the sociopolitical context; ethical issues; the planning of evaluations; specification of variables, with emphasis on definitions of effectiveness and on operations of service technologies; the formulation of evaluation objectives; issues in sampling procedures, measurement, and data collection; alternative models for designing programmatic and organizational evaluations, including network analysis; analysis of findings; feedback at different stages of program evaluation; and reporting, dissemination, and utilization of results.
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SW832

Research Methods for Social Policy Analysis

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing and one grad level stats course or permission of instructor
Description:
This course covers research methods for assessing the nature and extent of needs for social intervention, evaluating the success or failure of existing social welfare policies, and determining the anticipated consequences of alternative policies and interventions. Also considered will be values and assumptions underlying policies and research, similarities and differences between methods for developing social policy knowledge and those for basic knowledge development, strategies to promote utilization and dissemination of research results, and methods of studying community, regional, national, and comparative international policies. Possible topics will be: community needs assessment techniques; subjective and objective measures of program and policy consequences; aggregation problems within and across communities, regions, or countries; analysis of time series data; archival and other historical methods of research; case study techniques; analysis of cross‐sectional, panel, and comparative international data as natural experiments; the design and analysis of formal social experiments; meta‐analysis of existing research results; and benefit‐cost analysis and other related methods.
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SW833

Grant Writing for Extramural Research Funding

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
Grant writing is the primary mechanism to obtain extramural funding for scientists who plan to pursue a career as an independently-funded principal investigator. Whether that extramural funding is through the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, or a private foundation; the ability to clearly and concisely articulate your program of research and funding needs is a critical skill to succeed as an academic researcher. However, few PhD programs provide formal instruction on the use of successful grant writing techniques. This course focuses on helping you develop advanced writing skills and knowledge of the grant-writing process, particularly as it pertains to NIH-style grant mechanisms. The course is conceptualized as covering the following topics: 1. Successful writing styles, including: a) writing readable sentences; and b) creating coherent paragraphs 2. Successful strategies for writing a specific aims page 3. Successful strategies for writing significance, innovation, and approach sections 4. Successful strategies for writing preliminary data 5. Successful strategies for writing a training plan 6. Reviewing the NIH review criteria and grant scoring rubric 7. Reviewing the preparation of all supporting documents (e.g., NIH biosketch; Human subjects, etc). 8. Learning to provide constructive peer review of grant applications The grading for this course will be centered around developing: a) specific aims page; b) significance and innovation sections; c) approach; d) preliminary data; and e) a training plan for a full draft of a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship. Students will be encouraged to submit their award to NIH for peer review. https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/fellowships/F31 Students will spend much of their class assigned reading by reviewing funded F31 applications as well as unfunded F31 applications so the students can learn to critically review an application to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Class time will be spent reviewing the structures of funded grants, unfunded grants, as well as providing constructive feedback to students through peer review.
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SW834

Evaluating Behavioral Interventions in Randomized Controlled Trials

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard study design to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions deployed in educational, clinical, and service-based settings. This course will use lecture, small groups, and case examples to help you develop the advanced skills and applied knowledge to design and lead randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of behavioral interventions. The course will cover the following topics: 1. Describe the principles (e.g., equipoise) underlying the conduct of an unbiased randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is commonly referenced as a ‘clinical trial.’ 2. Identifying specific challenges/pitfalls with and solutions to conducting RCTs to evaluate behavioral interventions 3. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of a range of research designs in addition to RCT (e.g., quasi-experimental) 4. Understanding methods for monitoring, coordinating, conducting, processing data, and evaluating behavioral RCTs 5. Understanding decisions regarding selection of primary and secondary outcome measures. 6. Understanding the importance of and strategies for randomization and conducting unbiased analysis 7. Understanding the importance of mixed-methods and qualitative evaluations within the context of RCTs. 8. Understanding the role of implementation science when designing and leading RCTs 9. Designing a specific study to test a behavioral intervention within an educational, clinical, or service-based setting
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SW835

Special Seminar: Applied Research in Aging I

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
This seminar is designed to develop research competence in applied issues of aging. The seminar is primarily designed for pre‐ and post‐doctoral fellows from the NIA project on Social Research Training on Applied Issues of Aging. Other participants are welcome after prior consultation with one of the instructors.
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SW836

Special Seminar: Applied Research in Aging II

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor
Description:
This year-long seminar is designed to develop research competence in applied settings. During the fall term, the seminar will focus on research related to substantive and theoretical issues involved in exploring the relationship between aging and health and health care. This seminar is primarily designed for pre and post-doctoral fellows on the NIA project on Social Research Training on Applied Issues of Aging. Other pre- and post- doctoral participants are welcome after prior consultation with one of the instructors. During the Winter term, each student develops a product using applied research concepts
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