Prepare and submit a research proposal informed by an area of interest or research question that would inform social work practice. The research proposal will include a proposal for primary research and be written in such a way that it could be carried out by a student social worker in their final year, were they allowed to undertake primary research. 3,500 words. (LO, 1-7)
Write up a research proposal using the following format:
Title
This needs to be brief but informative and relevant to the research question or hypothesis.
Introduction/Literature review/statement of the problem
Should include a short/brief review on current knowledge regarding the topic you have chosen. The expectation is that students include at least five references on current literature addressing this issue.
You will then need to include a short statement regarding the challenges of the chosen topic and how in particular social work practice can support the issue.
Research questions need to be added here. What are the things you are trying to find out? What are the main issues you will be investigating?
Methods
Sub heading 1 Sample – describe what type of sampling the researcher will choose.
purposeful, convenience etc, size of study population
Sub heading 2 Setting – describe where the research will take place e.g. University setting etc.
Sub heading 3 Instruments or materials – describe the instrument the study will use (if any), including its reliability and validity. Or describe the type of questions that will be asked (for qualitative studies)
Copies of the questionnaire or research questions must be included in the appendix and referenced in this section.
Sub heading 4 Data collection/procedure– describe how the data will be collected e.g. questionnaires will distributed, and so on.
Sub heading 5 Data analysis – provide an overview of what analysis will be employed and rationale for the use of descriptive statistics and t-tests or thematic analysis and any software (for example SPSS).
Sub heading 6 Ethical considerations – provide an explanation of any ethical issues, and how you will apply for ethical approval. You may wish to say you will apply to the School of Health and Education Ethics Committee, but if your proposal includes external organizations you will need to consider these as well.
Expected Findings or Results/Outputs (Student can choose to add either number 4 or 5 or both if they wish)
This should be brief but must include all the expected findings from the study, including any output the study will have. For example, would this proposed research lead to some form of training intervention for social workers?
Discussion / Implication for practice
This should include a discussion on how the findings or any output from the study will contribute toward existing knowledge on the topic and how this study will influence this or how it will influence social work practice. This will be necessarily general, so you should think about how the findings might contribute to the existing knowledge base of practising social workers, how information about current challenges would inform practice, how any examples of best practice might be used for example.
Notes:
Students will be expected to support their research knowledge with key references. For example, if you plan to use Thematic Analysis, you will need to explain what it is and how it is used, and why is this more appropriate than other methods? Same if you plan to conduct descriptive statistics and so on.
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