Teaching Note—The Stats Requirement: Statistical Thinking as Social Work

ABSTRACT

The statistics requirement in social work curricula can be seen by students as a detour from the substance of social work. In this note, I describe my experience teaching part-time master’s students that statistical thinking is social work: it is an application of the social work code of ethics and a critical tool in practice for making pragmatic decisions. I use two applied examples to demonstrate how statistical thinking can equip social workers to both identify inequity (through “rejecting the null”) and avoid practices with insufficient evidence (through “failing to reject the null”). Based on my experience, I suggest some strategies for other people to use when teaching statistics to social workers.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Betty Kramer for her support through the teaching experience; Maria Cancian for her incredible advising; and Molly Costanzo for her stats slides and comments on the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melody K. Waring

Melody K. Waring is in her fourth year of the PhD program in social welfare at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She completed her master’s at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her research interests include poverty, social policy, caregiving, family formation, and labor force participation.