Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SWK 3910 Reflection
SWK 3910 Reflection
Fall 2022
Holly Thompson
The portfolio assignment in Understanding Social Research included a research proposal
which was uncharted territory for me in the social work setting. This assignment made me learn
and understand the complexities that involved researching and the inclusions of surveys and
studies. Dr. Savage’s class was difficult for me at first but once she explained the assignments
and contributed videos pertaining to assignment, I found her to be an outstanding professor. She
helped me to understand how important social research is and the important role it plays in the
When doing this assignment, I learned how to conduct surveys and questionnaires
pertaining to topics related to social work. I learned how to measure variables and form a
research question and hypothesis in order to find answers to the topic of discussion. It introduced
me to quantitative and qualitative data as well. I learned about independent and dependent
variables which is crucial in research. I found this assignment to be relatively different from
other papers I have conducted in the past. Also, it gave me a sense of gratitude to be able to
understand and comprehend the context and requirements of the paper which ended in receiving
When doing research, I learned there are samples that must be determined for research
purposes which include probability sampling and the number of participants for study. There in
the process of inclusion and exclusion criteria when doing the sampling process as well. What I
never realized until doing this assignment is there is a variety of steps I had to go through before
doing the study which made me feel inadequate considering I had never done a project like this
before. It was a humbling experience and made me critically think and understand steps of the
process can not be missed. The participants identities in these studies must be protected so they
are required to sign confidentiality clauses and other non-disclosure agreements, in some cases.
My research involved adolescent mental health challenges which has mainly been my
platform throughout my junior and senior year for most of my portfolio assignments/papers. I
have been conflicted with whether I wanted to work with adolescents after graduation and during
the time I have been doing my fieldwork, I came to realize that it is not a group of individuals I
desire to offer service delivery. My experiences working with them have led me in another