Course Resources Archive

The Dissertation is designed to bring students from the Higher Specialist to the Advanced level of social work practice. It is a large single piece of work and it enables students to undertake a piece of self directed work linked to the promotion and dissemination of advanced practice skills and the improvement of services. The Dissertation provides students with an opportunity to conduct a sustained and intensive investigation into one topic and to present their findings in a formal manner in accordance with academic conventions and the requirements of the subject. Wherever possible this will be action research. Appropriate ethics committee approval will be requested (students should note that approval from relevant ethics committees may be a course requirement). Students will also be required to disseminate their findings in order to promote advanced practice.

The content of the Dissertation will vary according to the individual interests of the student but must be informed by an intention to improve practice. The Dissertation requires the student to conduct an original piece of research. The securing of ethics approval and the selection and application of suitable research methods is an important part of the exercise and the Dissertation should engage critically with issues of research ethics, methodology, method, evidence-based practice, analysis and methods of dissemination and their implementation in practice.

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

1. Conduct a sustained individual enquiry or piece of action research that will involve taking a leading role in promoting good practice practise and their own development;
2. Take responsibility for identifying and critically review existing literatures and/or methodologies, including that from service users and carers;
3. Prepare the documentation required for ethics approval as appropriate and actively promote user and carer involvement
4. Undertake an analysis of a particular research topic or area of practice, which may or may not have an empirical basis, by making use of an appropriate methodology and active involvement of service users and carers;
5. Conduct data analysis in accordance with the methodological conventions of the chosen area of study
6. Critically contextualise and reflect upon the implications of findings within the literature, policy or area of practice relevant to the particular research topic;
7. Independently reach conclusions drawn from both the analysis and the review as well as critical reflection of own practice
8. Support others to enable them to use evidence based practice to improve their own practice.
9. Take a leading role in enable improvements in practice in a complex environment that involves working across barriers as a result of the analysis undertaken within the module.

The Dissertation is a student-led independent piece of work and there is no formal class contact time to support this module. Students will be allocated a specialist adviser who will be available to meet with the student to provide advice and to support and to offer critical feedback on work undertaken. Students are encouraged to form learning sets and support groups and where subject specialisms and student choice permit, group tutorials will be offered to support student learning.

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.