PRACTICE WISDOM

Practice wisdom is reconceptualized as an integrating vehicle for comb ining the strengths and minimizing the limitations of both the ''objec tive,'' or empirical, practice model and the ''subjective,'' or intuit ive-phenomenological, practice model in the development of efficacious knowledge in social work. Practice wisdom is defined as a personal an d value-driven system of knowledge that emerges out of the transaction between the phenomenological experience of the client situation and t he use of scientific information. The result of this transaction is te ntative, often unarticulated knowledge that forms the basis for on-the -spot practice hypotheses that enable progress to be made on a case in the absence of fully tested methods. Feedback from these practice hyp otheses both strengthens practice skills and contributes to the articu lation of knowledge in standard forms such as evaluation and theory de velopment.