The development of communicative and narrative skills among preschoolers: lessons from forensic interviews about child abuse

This study examined age differences in 299 preschoolers' responses to investigative interviewers' questions exploring the suspected occurrence of child abuse. Analyses focused on the children's tendencies to respond (a) at all, (b) appropriately to the issue raised by the investigator, and (c) informatively, providing previously undisclosed information. Linear developmental trends characterized all types of responding. When the types of prompts were considered, 3- to 4-year-olds responded slightly more informatively to specific (directive) recall prompts than to open-ended prompts whereas children aged 5 and older were more responsive to open-ended recall prompts. The findings suggest that even 3-year-olds can provide information about experienced events when recall processes are activated, although the ability to provide narrative responses to open-ended recall prompts only becomes reliable later in development.     

Education Trifecta: Win Attention,Place Knowledge,Show Understanding

Continuing education for librarians and educating library school students in the areas of technical services are topics often discussed within the field of librarianship. The presenters in this session provided alternatives to “on the job” education for technical services professionals. Two presenters provided strategies for instructing an online continuing education course on acquisitions. The third presenter shared information about the development and teaching of a serials course at a library school.     

CORRESPONDENCE INSTRUCTION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTITIONERS IN THE FIELD OF AGING

Institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada are demonstrating an increasing interest in the field of social gerontology. However, many practitioners already working in the field find it difficult, if not impossible, to enter “full‐time” formal programs of graduate study. Correspondence instruction could prove to be one of the most effective means of providing educational opportunities about aging to individuals either working or contemplating working with the aged. This paper summarizes the results of a study conducted to determine what is available in the field of aging through correspondence instruction at accredited institutions in the United States and Canada. There were 85 institutions offering correspondence instruction surveyed; 51 of these institutions (60%) offer correspondence instruction courses that are related, in one way or another, to the field of aging. A total of 99 aging or aging‐related correspbndence courses are identified.     

Editorial

This paper centers on the process of conducting research on children’s social development through a partnership between university‐based researchers and teachers and students in an urban New England school district. It does so through the eyes of its first author, a second year graduate student who is negotiating the dual roles of researcher and teacher. In the process of investigating more about young children’s perceptions of teasing in conjunction with her research team, this student learns that theories about children’s social awareness developed in university settings virtually always require modification when examined in the real world. Ultimately, she concludes that the partnership between theorists and practitioners leads to a fine‐tuning of research protocols that elicit more complicated and variable responses from students, and that classroom climate factors, temporary or longstanding, may either facilitate or prevent effective data collection and analysis.     

Digital Discernment: An E‐Commerce Web Site Evaluation Tool

Students entering the business workforce today may well share some responsibility for developing, revising, or evaluating their company's Web site. They may lack the experience, however, to critique their employer's Web presence effectively. The purpose of developing Digital Discernment, an e‐commerce Web site evaluation tool, was to prepare students for this work. The tool provides them with a listing of criteria with which to assess e‐commerce sites, lets them evaluate pre‐selected sites qualitatively and quantitatively, and allows them to compare their evaluations with their peers. In this article, we discuss and examine the effectiveness of this tool and consider the ways in which it can help students in their future business careers.