Teaching Students to Evaluate Practice Outcomes by Monitoring Clients' Responses to Opportunities

Abstract

To ensure accountability, social work students learn to evaluate their practice, often by measuring outcomes through direct observation. Simply recording the frequency, duration, or rate of a client's target problems, however, may not be sufficient. This article discusses the evaluative and clinical benefits of monitoring both opportunities for target behavior to occur and the client's responses. It examines criteria for choosing opportunities and responses as units of observation, operational definitions of these units, and scales on which to rate clients' responses during baseline and intervention phases, along with ways to display and analyze findings. Case studies from student projects support the text.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Judith C. Nelsen

Judith C. Nelsen is professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago.