TheoryandResearch-OxfordUniversityPress.ppt

Best PracticesTheory and Research Chapter 18 Current and Future Social Work Practice Best PracticeThe Role of Evidence Practitioners require skill in accessing systematic reviews and weighing the empirical evidence according to the rigor of the research design. Choosing an effective and appropriate intervention for a specific client or situation, requires a review of the evidence that supports one theory-based intervention over another. Research is the core of evidence-based practice. Best PracticesThe Limitations of Empiricism Though necessary, empiricism is not sufficient to build knowledge. No array of statistical techniques can produce cumulative knowledge. Empirical data become knowledge when referred to theory for understanding. Best PracticesThe Role of Theory Theory, as knowledge, is a body of interrelated proposition, statements, and concepts that have been subjected to empirical verification. As part of the research process, theories become self-corrective. The holistic property of theory (cause-effect) moves the practitioner in an orderly and conceptually consistent manner from declarative knowledge (what is known-procedural knowing) to enactment of a therapeutic process (doing-tacit knowing). Ways of Knowing There are three basic ways of knowing: 1. Faith- knowing based on theological or religious beliefs. 2. Reason-knowing based on rational discourse; logic, argument, philosophical proof. 3. Science- knowing based on empirical evidence; assumptions of linearity, probability, ability to measure an objective reality Science As a Way of Knowing Scientific knowing differs from knowing based on animal instincts and belief in ideology or magic. The scientific paradigm is based on trust in reason (rules of discourse), logic, rigorous research methodology, a belief in progress (new knowledge builds on previous knowledge) and academic freedom (pursuit of truth). Science adheres to standards against which compara