The
prevalence of child maltreatment is such that almost all counselors will
come into contact with victims, their families, or the offenders during
the course of their careers. In 2003, approximately 5 million children
were referred to Child Protective Services for suspicion of abuse or
neglect (U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children,
Youth, and Families, 2005). Given that in most states, mental health
and school counselors are mandated reporters of child maltreatment, the
need for training in the identification and reporting of abuse is
essential. Child abuse training should be included in many courses and a
variety of methods employed to increase student exposure and learning.
Counselors who work with children in schools or mental health settings
require training in child abuse and neglect. However, many counselor
education programs may not fully address this issue or adequately
prepare students for their role as mandated reporters. Further, most
programs that address child abuse reporting are not evaluated with
statistical rigor or consistency; they have not been documented to
increase student knowledge or competence in this area. There has been
very little research examining curriculms and whether they include child
maltreatment. A recent survey of doctoral psychology programs and
psychiatry residency programs found that 20% offered training in several
areas of interpersonal violence, including child abuse (Kelly, 1997).
In addition, the research literature on how much knowledge of child
abuse counselors possess is sparse. For example, Crenshaw, Crenshaw,
and Lichtenberg (1995) found that only 10% of the school counselors,
school psychologists and teachers they surveyed felt as though they had
adequate knowledge of child abuse signs and reporting procedures. Kenny
and McEachern (2002) found that half of the school counselors in their
sample rated their preservice training in child maltreatment as
inadequate or minimal. Furthermore, recognizing the need to ensure
greater professional competence in managing child abuse, there is a
trend among state licensing boards to require courses in child abuse
reporting for licensure or relicensure (Kalichman, 1999).
Need
for Training
Despite the need for counselors to possess skills and knowledge in the
area of child abuse reporting, the Council for Accreditation of
Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP)
makes only minimal reference to child abuse in its standards. The
Standards for School Counseling Programs, requires that programs include
“issues that may affect the development and functioning of students
(e.g., abuse, violence…)” (p.93), however, no such information is
included in the standards for other programs. Meanwhile, the American
Psychological Association (APA) (which accredits psychology programs)
has a Child Abuse and Neglect working group. This group has published a
set of guidelines for including information about child abuse and
neglect in graduate education (APA,
1996). These guidelines recommend training that includes information
on identification and treatment of child maltreatment, relevant ethical
issues, and current theories of abusive behavior. Implementing child
maltreatment education can be accomplished without restructuring the
course of study in most graduate programs (Champion, Shipman, Bonner,
Hensley & Howe, 2003). Some suggestions include a few hour training
module on child maltreatment that is part of a seminar class, inviting a
guest speaker who is an expert in this area, or inclusion of readings
and video material related to child abuse.
The
use of technological tools, including online courses and programs, is
gaining popularity in counseling training programs (Clark & Stone,
2002). Online instruction is being used to disseminate information to
counselors in a number of areas including: (a) career counseling
(McCarthy, Moller, & Beard, 2003), (b) human development (Lundberg,
2000), (c) marriage and family therapy (Stevens, Dobrovolny, Kean, &
Shulman, 2003), and (d) supervision for practicum and internship (Van
Horn, 2001). In addition to learning, studies indicate that online
assignments can make the educational process more enjoyable (Lundberg,
2000). It appears that the use of technology in teaching may be
appropriate for many aspects of counselor education programs. The use of
technology to disseminate information about child abuse reporting to
counseling students can serve many functions. It allows professors to
communicate the information to many students in a single “presentation”
as well as providing students the opportunity to read and comprehend
complex information at their own rate.
The purpose of this training was to education students through an online
module devoted to child maltreatment and to test the students’ knowledge
upon completing the tutorial. An innovative teaching approach using
technology was chosen to address the need for counselor competence in
technology as recommended by CACREP in the Professional Identity
standard (CACREP, 2001). The infusion of technology was accomplished
with little change to the class format, as students completed the
tutorial outside of class, at their own convenience. A graduate level
course in Ethical, Legal and Professional Issues, in the Counselor
Education program, offered at a large, urban university in South Florida
was chosen for inclusion of this material. Given that child abuse
reporting is both an ethical and a legal requirement for counselors, the
topic area was most appropriately reviewed in this course.
Development and Piloting of Training Module
Development
In the
summer of 2002, the author began a project partially funded by a PT3
grant
(Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology) that involved the
development of a web-based training module for education majors
initially, and subsequently, for school and mental health counseling
students. The author created a web-based training program entitled,
Child Abuse Tutorial: The Role of the Mandated Reporter, which
included information on different types of child maltreatment as well as
issues related to mandated reporting of child abuse. The assistance of
an instructional designer from the university’s Center for Online
Teaching was critical in the web site development. The author and the
instructional designer met weekly for two months and developed the web
site which took approximately 120 hours to create; the instructional
designer worked about 60 hours and the professor worked an equal 60
hours on the site.
Information was selected from the current literature (including recent
journal articles and texts) on child maltreatment, the author’s
extensive clinical and research experience in child maltreatment, and
data from
Child Maltreatment, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (2005). The
instructional designer was able to locate copy right free art to enhance
the aesthetics of the site. In addition, some photographs were
purchased. At the start of the semester, the students were oriented to
the training module, and were given the World Wide Web address (i.e.,
the URL). This information was also included in the course
syllabus.
The
web-based training consists of 87 pages of information and is separated
into different categories. The first few pages instruct the student on
how to use the tutorial as well as how to complete the pre-test. The
table of contents for the module included: (a) incidence and
prevalence of abuse (statistics), (b) current stories of abuse and
neglect from the media, (c) types of abuse (physical, sexual, emotional,
and neglect), (d) emotional and behavioral consequences, (e) Florida law
and statistics (i.e., incidence and prevalence), (f) indicators of
abuse, and (g) reporting procedures. The final pages of the tutorial
contained frequently asked questions (FAQ) and national resources for
child maltreatment. Embedded throughout the tutorial are questions
created to test the participants’ knowledge as well as case vignettes
that allow them to pick a course of action. Immediate feedback on their
responses is provided including a detailed explanation of the correct
response.
The
tutorial contains a pre and posttest which is used to both test the
student’s learning and to gather data for future research purposes
(Kenny, 2005). The
pre and posttests are secure and can only be accessed by a student
enrolled at the university. Students are required to log-in with their
student identification number as well as a password. If a student does
not know his or her student identification number, a help screen allows
retrieval of this number. Students may only take the pre and posttest
once. The pre and posttests contain the same 20 multiple choice
questions that assess the students’ knowledge of information contained
in the tutorial. The order of the questions and responses for the
posttest are randomized. A passing score of 80% is required in order to
pass the assignment. If a student successfully completes the posttest,
the student is then able to print out a certificate of completion that
contains an identification number unique to that student (See Figure 1).
This certificate is then turned in to the professor and the student is
given credit for the assignment. If the student does not pass the
posttest, no credit is given for the assignment. The professor’s e-mail
is provided as a link in the left margin of each page so that students
can contact her with questions or comments.
Piloting and Modifications
The author created a form entitled,
Mandated Reporter Tutorial Formative Evaluation,
which served as an evaluation of the web site and the information
therein. The development of this evaluation was based on the
recommendation of Clark and Stone (2002). When using web based
assignments, they propose having students
answer
questions about the site, or make comments and /or recommendations about
the site to the instructor. During the first semester of implementation,
this form was distributed to every student at the start of the semester.
The form provided them with the opportunity to rate the web-based
experience and offer suggestions for improvements. Sample questions
included, “What is the most important piece of information you
learned?”, “What did you like best about this tutorial?”, “What did you
like least about this tutorial?”, and “How could this tutorial be
improved?”. In addition, there were several statements regarding the web
site that students responded to on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from
“strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. (See Table 1 for a complete
list). These forms, which were turned in anonymously by 21 students
(100% return rate) and did not affect their grade, were read by the
professor at the end of the semester.
Table 1
Results from the
Mandated Reporter Tutorial Formative Evaluation (N= 64)
|
|
Strongly Agree |
Agree |
Disagree |
Strongly Disagree |
Not Applicable |
|
The objectives of this
tutorial are clear and concise |
80 |
14 |
|
6 |
|
|
The content and practice
exercises did not prepare me adequately for the post-test |
6 |
5 |
31 |
58 |
|
|
I liked the self-paced
nature of this tutorial. |
81 |
19 |
|
|
|
|
There is too much content
covered in this tutorial. |
|
|
42 |
58 |
|
|
The material in this
tutorial is relevant to my future profession. |
88 |
11 |
|
|
2 |
|
The self-test exercises
within the tutorial are too easy. |
7 |
34 |
55 |
5 |
|
|
The post-test was accurate
and fair. |
55 |
41 |
3 |
|
1 |
|
The difficulty level of the
tutorial is appropriate. |
25 |
70 |
5 |
|
|
|
This material would be
better served as an in-class presentation by an instructor. |
3 |
14 |
68 |
16 |
|
|
In general, this tutorial is
easy to use. |
75 |
22 |
|
3 |
|
Note: The values
represent mean percentages.
Based
on feedback from the Mandated Reporter Tutorial Formative Evaluation
several changes were made. In response to the question, “How could this
tutorial be improved?”, two technical themes emerged. One included the
course management system (Web CT) and the other related to the
navigation links. Initially, Web CT was used to proctor both the pre and
posttests and for instructor managing of the students’ scores on these
tests. However, many students had difficulty with this system in terms
of logging in and accessing the tests. Thus, a specialized assessment
site, created by the web development team at the university’s technology
support center, was implemented, to allow for easier student access and
professor management. It took this team approximately 40 hours to create
the custom online testing. Secondly, the other technical difficulty with
the navigation links (forward and back) was addressed by moving them to
the bottom of the pages rather than the top. Fedback from students also
indicated that the directions for the pretest were difficult, so these
were modified. Specifically, it was not clear to students at what point
in the tutorial they should begin the pretest. Two more pages of
instructions for test taking were added, (using different colored fonts
for emphasis) in order to improve student comprehension.
Implementation and Outcome
Once
the changes were made, the training module was again included as an
assignment the next semester the course was offered. Over the course of
three semesters (12 months) beginning Fall 2003, 64 graduate students
enrolled in a counselor education program (Master’s degree) completed
the tutorial. The students’ ages ranged from 22 to 55 years (M =
29.3, SD = 8.6). They were primarily female (95%) and Hispanic
(52%), which is representative of the university’s and program’s student
population. The remaining students self-identified as Anglo/Caucasian
(21%), Black/African American (13%), Asian (4%), and 10% “other”,
including those who are multiracial or multicultural. Students were
instructed to complete the tutorial at any time during the semester,
prior to the last day of class. The majority of the students (71%)
completed the tutorial at home, while 22% completed it at work and the
remaining 7% at the university’s computer labs. Students completed the
tutorial in an average of 54 minutes (SD = 19.32). The students
rated their computer skill level as novice/beginner 9.4%,
experienced 84.3%, and expert 6.3%.
The
Mandated Reporter Tutorial Formative Evaluation was again utilized
for feedback. In general, the training was rated very favorably
by students. In response to the question, “What did you like best?”, the
most common response was that the tutorial was “user friendly” and easy
to use (46%). The students also reported that they enjoyed the
self-paced learning of the training (81%), which allowed them to access
the information at their own convenience. Students commented that they
learned a lot about child maltreatment and found that the information
that was presented was adequate to the topic and did not overwhelm them
(70% ). In addition, many students (36%) reported that there was little
that they did not like about the tutorial. However, when asked, “How
could this tutorial be improved?”, several comments were noted. Many
students desired more intensive information related to child abuse
(14%), whereas others requested immediate feedback or the correct
answers to the posttest questions (11%). Other responses found on the
Mandated Reporter Tutorial Formative Evaluation are displayed in
Table 1. The test portion of the web module revealed a significant
difference between the pre- and posttest scores (t (63) =
-10.81, p < .001), with participants’ scoring higher on
posttest.
Discussion and Conclusion
As
technology advances, more consideration must be given to its’ infusion
in counselor training. This paper described one method of technological
based teaching that provided counselor education students with much
needed information on child maltreatment. The feedback from students
indicated a very favorable response to this training. Essentially, in a
relatively short period of time, future counselors were able to
assimilate knowledge related to the identification and reporting of
child abuse as demonstrated by an increase in their test scores.
Further, since they have been provided with the URL at the start of the
class, they are able to access this information again at any time in the
future.
This paper demonstrates that online technology can be successfully
inserted into counseling curricula to cover the topic of child
maltreatment. Most students reported using computers frequently and were
comfortable with an online assignment. Many had computers at home or
work and the university provides access to computer labs for those who
do not. Students indicated that this online assignment made the course
more interesting and fun than when no on line assignments are given
(Lundberg, 2000). However, as with any technology, one difficulty noted
by students was experiencing frustration at times when the university
server was temporarily off line and they could not access the website.
Thus, at times they were not able to complete the assignment at the time
they wanted to.
There
are several distinct advantages to utilizing technology in this way to
teach this material. First, the on-line format freed up valuable class
time to address other topics while at the same time, highlighting the
importance of the topic. Another advantage is that students were able to
reflect upon the information prior to class, which resulted in more
thought provoking questions and advanced discussion of child abuse
mandates and issues, compared to prior semesters when the material was
part of a class presentation. The tutorial also led to one student
personally approaching the professor about a child abuse situation that
occurred in her own family and asking how to handle it. Another
advantage is that the web site only needs to be modified on an annual
basis as the newest statistics regarding child abuse are released or as
changes are made in the reporting laws. In addition, this web site has
generated data for research demonstrating its’ effectiveness in teaching
future school personnel (Kenny, 2005).
Clark and Stone (2002) have reported that it is important when using
technology for students to have a “product” as a result of the
assignment. To this end, students were able to print out a certificate
upon successful completion of the posttest. They were encouraged to
include this certificate in their portfolios (a Florida department of
education requirement for school counselors which contains work samples)
and to show it during job interviews if they were mental health
counseling students to confirm their knowledge in this area.
On a more global level, during a 9 month period (while the web counter
was active) this web site received over 2,000 hits. This indicates that
a large number of individuals, most of whom were outside the realm of
this course, were accessing the information contained on the web site.
The more awareness that is raised regarding child abuse, the greater the
likelihood of early detection and identification of victims. The author
has received many e-mails from professionals at other institutions in
various disciplines (i.e., psychology, law, education) regarding this
web site. Many professors have asked to be able to use it with their
students. They are encouraged to use the web site but the testing
portion can only be used with students enrolled at the university in
which it is housed. Further, the reporting procedures and laws are
specific to Florida and would need to be modified for use in another
state. One outcome of this study was the inclusion of the web site into
the teacher education curriculum at the university. All education majors
(intended teachers) are required to complete the tutorial during their
student teaching experience. The certificate is submitted to their
instructor as an assignment, without which they are not eligible for
graduation.
Limitations and Recommendations
There are several limitations to this study, including the use of a
rather small pilot sample and well as the use of students from only one
discipline and university. Furthermore, if a student experiences
technical difficulties while taking the test, there is no way for that
student to take the test again. Thus, the professor has to be contacted
and make a decision to allow the student to retake the test and reset
the student in the system. If this happens with many students, it can
become time consuming for the professor. This web site might be improved
by including video vignettes of cases of child abuse (e.g. interviews
with teachers or counselors who present a scenario) and then allowing
students to respond to the scenario with the correct course of action.
Future research could evaluate the effectiveness of this web site as a
teaching tool by retesting students’ in a several month follow up. Plans
are currently being made to alter this site and make it available as a
form of continuing education for licensed mental health professionals.
If approved, this would meet the standard of gaining one credit in
domestic violence during the licensure biennium period.
It is recommended that the American Counseling Association make
available information for its members on child abuse reporting
procedures and mandates. Currently, there is little to no information
available on their web site or in related publications. CACREP may also
want to give greater attention to child maltreatment in its standards
for practice. Guidelines for assisting faculty in including information
related to child maltreatment in their curriculums would be helpful. A
systematic review of counselor education programs to determine if they
include information related to child maltreatment could also yield
results indicating the future direction of training efforts.
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Author's Biography
