First Year

Classes
Doctoral Program Proseminar
0 credits.
Required of all degree candidates. The proseminar, in which students will be introduced to current issues in the field of social work research, will be held in the Fall semester of the first year, with additional sessions scheduled in the Spring semester.

Social Work T8801.
Comparative Histories of Social Welfare and Social Work
3 credits.
Required of all degree candidates. Taken in the first semester, this course provides a comparative historical and philosophical perspective on the development of social welfare and social work institutions, concepts, issues and paradigms in the U.S. and two other nations or parts of the world.

The Research Practicum
The research practicum aims to link classroom learning to the dissertation process by providing students with a research assistantship in conjunction with a current faculty research project.

Timing
Students must commence the practicum during the second semester of their first year and before their third year of study. In all cases, students must complete the practicum before submitting a dissertation proposal.

Hours of work and nature of work
Students complete a total of 360 hours, the equivalent of one 8–hour day per week for 45 weeks over three semesters. They determine specific tasks and learning goals to be accomplished in consultation with their supervisor.

The student is expected to perform the usual tasks of a research assistant, not support staff duties (e.g., xeroxing, errand running, typing) beyond those needed to meet his or her educational goals.

Responsibilities of faculty
Faculty members willing to supervise a research practicum must submit a brief description of available research projects, learning opportunities their project(s) will provide, and a structured plan for supervision and mentoring. Projects must provide an educational experience that orients students to several phases of research and affords them opportunities to participate in as many of these phases as is feasible. Faculty members must also prepare a brief evaluation of the student's performance vis–à–vis established learning goals and of the structure of the practicum experience.

They may supervise more than one student at a time.

Responsibilities of the student

1. Fulfill time requirements and perform at a satisfactory level.
    
2. Keep track of hours worked and tasks performed.
    
3. Notify the Doctoral Office when the practicum is completed.
    
4. Achieve all learning goals, including production of a publishable paper if at all feasible.

Matching students and faculty
Each spring, faculty submit proposals for practicum opportunities to the Doctoral Office, who in turn publicize the various opportunities. Students either contact faculty on their own or arrange with the Doctoral Office to help match their interests and learning goals with a professor’s needs. In consultation with the sponsoring faculty member, the student then selects a practicum that best meets his or her learning objectives.

Once matched, students sign a practicum contract with the supervising professor that specifies the purpose of the research, responsibilities of each party, scheduled hours, and expected outcomes.

Credits, grades and termination
The research practicum involves neither credits, fees, nor grades. If a student fails to complete the requisite number of hours or begins to perform at an unsatisfactory level, his or her practicum may be terminated and he or she will not receive credit for fulfilling the requirement.

If the student and faculty member conclude that they cannot work together (for reasons other than poor performance) the Doctoral Chair will endeavor to rematch the student.

Social Method Courses

Social Work T8203.
Seminar in Advanced Social Work Practice
3 credits.
Required for degree candidates in the advanced practice sequence. Examines the nature of professional knowledge and issues and trends in the development of knowledge for use by social work practitioners.

Social Work T8404.
Seminar in U.S. Social Policy (Note: This course is currently being revamped.)
3 credits.
Required for all students in social policy and policy analysis or social administration. Assuming some prior background, the seminar begins with a review of current U.S. social policy. The major focus is on selected cross–cutting themes (e.g., the social role of government; poverty; privatization; federalism; family roles; race and ethnicity) and topical issues on the public agenda (e.g., welfare reform; homelessness; immigration; long–term care). Specific issues and topics are selected according to students’ backgrounds and interests.

Research Methodology and Statistics
Training in research methodology and statistics is integral to social work inquiry. All students are required to demonstrate competence in advanced research methods and statistics through successful completion of two to three courses each in research methods and statistics beyond the content covered in the first semester introductory courses (i.e. Introductory Research Methods (T8502) and the student's statistics course taken in the first semester).

Social Work T8502.
Research Methods in Social Work
3 credits.
A review of research methods from the perspective of social work research concerns. Topics include problem formulation, research design, data–gathering techniques, measurement and data analysis. Selected aspects of these areas are intensively reviewed in terms of social work research. Students entering with prior research methods experience may elect to waive out of T8502 in order to move on to more advanced coursework. Those who waive must still complete the same number of required credits.

Note on the choice of advanced courses:
Many research methodologies and advanced analytic approaches are applicable to social work scholarship. Students should elect advanced courses outside the School of Social Work appropriate to their social work method and their provisional dissertation topic. Advanced research methods courses include historical, qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Within the School of Social Work, we offer the following advanced research methods courses:

Social Work T8507
Intervention Research Methods (new window)

Social Work T8509
Qualitative Research Methods (new window)

Social Work T8511
Advanced Methods for Policy Analysis (new window)

Examples of advanced statistics courses include measurement, applied regression analysis, structural equation modeling, and advanced analytic topics appropriate for various research designs and data types.

Courses should be selected with the aim of fostering competence in most of the following areas:

1. Problem formulation: Conceptualizing research problems, understanding the role of theory, hypothesis generation, and the relationship of problem formulation to research design.
2. Research design: Examples include cross–sectional surveys, field and laboratory experiments, longitudinal studies in naturalistic settings, single and multiple case studies in historical, clinical, and organizational research.
3. Data collection: Examples include questionnaire construction, structured and unstructured interviewing, observational methods, recruitment and retention of participants, and research with vulnerable populations.
4. Measurement: Includes topics such as index construction and scaling, formation of typologies, rating scales, and psychometric properties.
5. Data analysis: Procedures include descriptive and inferential (parametric and nonparametric) statistics, software programs for management and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.