Integrating Research and Practice in Social Work with Groups

Abstract

The gap between research and practice in social work with groups is currently large. Yet the call for account- ability and the requirements for curriculum content integrating research and practice has increased. This article promotes three avenues through which to build the bridge between prac- tice and research in social work with groups, especially among students. These are: 1 identifying the use of empirical pro- cess in all practice; ( 1 2 building instrumentation into group work practice; and (3) usin single system designs for evaluat- ing group work practice. W a en workers learn to operationalize infefventive hypotheses, measure the outcome, process, and leadership variables involved in these hv~otheses, and analyze data coniistent with single system desii4, a major step wilibe advanced toward integrating research and practice in social work with groups.