The effect of intra- versus post-interview feedback during simulated practice interviews about child abuse

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the effectiveness of two types of instructor feedback (relative to no feedback) on investigative interviewers' ability to adhere to open-ended questions in simulated practice interviews about child abuse. METHOD: In one condition, feedback was provided at the end of each practice interview. In the other, the instructor stopped the interviewer at various stages during the practice interviews to provide feedback. The relative effect of these conditions was examined by measuring interviewers' performance in a standardized mock interview paradigm immediately prior to, immediately after, and 12 weeks after the practice and feedback sessions. RESULTS: Prior to and 12 weeks after the practice sessions were administered, there was no significant difference in participants' adherence to open-ended questions irrespective of the nature of the feedback, or whether feedback was received. At the immediate post-practice assessment interval, however, the participants who received feedback during the practice interviews performed better (M proportion of open-ended questions=.85, SD=.13) than the other participants (post-interview feedback M=.67, SD=.18, p<.001; no feedback M=.56, SD=.16, p<.001). This heightened use of open-ended questions was associated with a greater tendency among the interviewees to provide abuse-related details in response to open-ended questions (M=.91, SD=.11) compared to the other participants (post-interview feedback M=.77, SD=.15, p<.05; no feedback M=.69, SD=.16, p=.001). CONCLUSIONS: Different types of feedback can be differentially effective in training child abuse investigators to adhere to open-ended questions. The benefits of any training program, however, are likely to be short-lived without ongoing practice. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: A single study compared the relative effectiveness of two types of instructor feedback (relative to no feedback) on investigative interviewers' ability to adhere to open-ended questions in simulated practice interviews about child abuse. This research is relevant to trainers of investigative interviewers because there is currently large variability in the type of feedback employed in training programs. This study is one of the first to empirically demonstrate that different types of feedback may be differentially effective in improving the performance of investigative interviewers.     

Evaluating the Graduation Gap: Interventions Designed to Enhance Upper-level Student Success and Commitment

Over the past several decades, there has been a wealth of research identifying factors and conditions of persistence toward graduation for first-year students and more recently transfer students. While previous research recognizes these critical periods, some recent literature suggests that students may face a similar transitional period later in their academic careers as they advance into their major areas of study. To date, there has been a dearth of information exploring upper-level students' success and commitment to graduation. Exploring this later transition might provide a critical link to understanding the graduation gap between those students who persist to graduation and those who drop out. The purpose of this research was to review the intervention programs proscribed by the literature, design an intervention program, and examine the impact of the program on criminal justice students during this advanced transitional phase of their college careers. It examined the direct and indirect effects of the intervention program on both retention and the antecedents of successful retention while controlling for other relevant influences identified in the literature. The results indicated that the intervention had small, but significant positive direct and indirect effects on academic integration, commitment to the university, and graduating in a timely fashion. Policy implications are discussed.     

Graduate study and research

Speech Correction on the Contract Plan. By Ruth B. Manser. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1935; pp. xix + 333.

Leadership in a Changing World. Ed. by M. David Hoffman and Ruth Wanger. New York: Harper and Bros., 1935 ; pp. xv + 418.

Your Telltale English. By Sophie C. Hadida. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1935 ; pp. 419. $2.00.

Propaganda; Its Psychology and Technique. By Leonard W. Doob. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1935; pp. x + 424. $3.00.

The 1932 Campaign: An Analysis. By Roy V. Peel and Thomas C. Donnelly. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1935; pp. viii + 242. $1.50.

A B C of Reading. By Ezra Pound. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934; pp. xii + 197.

Lotteries. Compiled by Helen M. Muller. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1935 ; pp. 128. $0.90.

Old Age Pensions. Compiled by Julia E. Johnsen. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1935 ; pp. 295. $0.90.

Socialized Medicine. A debate reprinted from the University Debaters’ Annual for 1933–1934. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1935 ; pp. 31: $.35.

Road To War: America 1914–1917. By Walter Millis. Boston and New York: Houghton Miffiin Company, 1935 ; pp. ix + 466. Index. $3.00.

Speech Therapy. By Emil Fröschels. Translated from the German by Joseph Noyes Haskell. Boston: The Expression Company, 1933 ; pp. 252.

Speech in Childhood: Its Development and Disorders. By George Seth and Douglas Guthrie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1935 ; pp. x + 224. $3.50.

A Study of Illiteracy in C.C.C. Camps. Washington: Bulletin 110068 of the United States Office of Education, Department of the Interior, 1935.

Propaganda and Promotional Activities. An Annotated Bibliography. By H. D. Lasswell, R. D. Casey, and B. L. Smith. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1935 ; pp. 450.

World Politics and Personal Insecurity. By H. D. Lasswell. New York: Whittlesey House, 1935 ; pp. 307.

Fox. By Christopher Hobhouse. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1935; pp. 320. $3.50.

Architecture for the New Theatre. Edited by Edith J. R. Isaacs. Published for the National Theatre Conference. New York: Theatre Arts, Inc., 1935 ; pp. 125. $2.50.

Directing for the Amateur Stage. By Leslie Crump. New York: Dodd, Mead &; Co., 1935; pp. xi + 235. $2.50.

Freedom of the Press. By George Seldes. Indianapolis: The Bobbs‐ Merrill Co., 1935 ; pp. 380. $2.75.

Psychology of Acting. By Lorenz Kjerbühl‐Petersen, translated by Sarah T. Barrows. Boston: Expression Company, 1935 ; pp. 255. $3.50.

Congress or the Supreme Court. Edited by Egbert Ray Nichols. New York: Noble &; Noble, Inc., 1935; pp. 476. $2.00.

Aphasia: A Clinical and Psychological Study. By Theodore Weisenburg and Katherine McBride. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1935 ; pp. 634. $5.00.

Current English. By Arthur G. Kennedy. Boston: Ginn &; Co., 1935; pp. xiii + 737. $3.50.

The Development of Modern English. By Stuart Robertson. New York: Prentice‐Hall, Inc., 1934; pp. vii + 559. $2.50.

The Politician: His Habits, Outcries, and Protective Coloring. By James Harold Wallis. New York: The Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1935; pp. x + 333. $3.00.

Play Production. By M. V. C. Jeffreys and R. W. Stopford. London: Methuen &; Co., New York: E. P. Dutton &; Co., 1933; pp. xviii + 199. $2.50.

The Genesis and Growth of English. By J. S. Armour. New York: Oxford University Press, 1935; pp. xi + 182. $1.25.

The Neutrality Policy of the United States. Compiled by Julia E. Johnsen. The Reference Shelf, vol. X, no. 7. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1936; pp. 267. $0.90.

How to Conduct Group Discussion. By A. F. Wileden and H. L. Ewbank. Madison: Extension Service of the College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, 1935; pp. 64.

Who Should Pay the Doctor Bills. By H. L. Ewbank and Martin P. Anderson. Madison: Extension Service of the College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin, 1936; pp. 38.

Effective Speech: First Course. By Lousene Rousseau and Mary E. Cramer. New York: Harper &; Bros., 1936; pp. xii + 300. $1.20.

The Science and Art of Speech. By Charles Robert Walsh. New York: Benziger Bros., 1935; pp. xvii + 193. $2.60.

Mediaeval Artes Praedicandi: A Supplementary Hand‐List. By Harry Caplan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1936; pp. 36.

Masks and Marionettes. By Joseph Spencer Kennard. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935; pp. ix + 129. $3.50.

The Public Speaker's Scrapbook. By William G. Hoffman. New York: Whittlesey House, 1935; pp. xi + 269. $2.50.

For Stutterers. By Smiley Blanton, M.D., and Margaret Gray Blanton. New York: D. Appleton‐Century Co., 1936; pp. xi + 191. $2.00.

Basic Speech and Voice Science. By L. S. Judson and A. T. Weaver. Madison: The College Typing Company, 1933; pp. iv + 218. $4.25.

Anecdotal History of the Science of Sound, to the Beginning of the 20th Century. By Dayton C. Miller. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935 ; pp. xi + 114. $2.50.

Lucius Q. C. Lainar. By Wirt Armistead Cate. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1935 ; pp. xiii + 594. $5.00.

Disorders of Speech and Voice, 4th ed. By Robert West. Madison: College Typing Co., 1935; pp. 144. $2.75.

Bibliography of Disorders of Speech and Voice. By Robert West. Madison: College Typing Co., 1934; pp. 21. $0.50.

Signals and Speech in Electrical Communication. By John Mills. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934; pp. 281. $2.75.

Something About Words. By Ernest Weekley. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1936; pp. 233. $1.75.

A History of the Philadelphia Theatre 1835–1855. By Arthur. Herman Wilson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1935 ; pp. 724. $6.00.

How to Develop Your Speaking Voice, By E. H. Baxter Rinquest. Denver: Frank J. Wolf Publishing House, 1935; pp. 228.

An Experience Curriculum in English. A Report of a Commission of the National Council of Teachers of English. W. Wilbur Hatfield, Chairman. New York: D. Appleton‐Century Company, Inc., 1935; pp. x + 323. $1.50. (To members of the N.C.T.E. $1.00.)     

Students as meaning-makers and the quest for the common school: A micro-ethnography of a US history classroom

This study examined the extent to which (a) nine US history students developed historically-grounded perspectives, and (b) the entire class engaged itself in inclusive, moral debate about historical events and issues. Inductive methods were used in this micro-ethnographic study to construct and verify its themes though interview, classroom observation and student survey. Seven students demonstrated identifiable perspectives. History was viewed by these students as personally-constructed interpretations, not as value-free chronologies. Only one student's perspective, however, was historically-grounded; other perspectives were grounded in references to contemporary issues. Evidence of moral debate was limited totwo debates observed during 24 classroom observations. These two findings seemed interconnected: students with little historical grounding to their perspectives may have little inclination toward collective, ethical critique. Moral debate consisting of student exchange of diverse historically-grounded perspectives was not the classroom norm. The debates that went into the making of American society concerned not just institutions or governing principles, but the capacity of humans to sustain those institutions. Whatever the disagreements were over other issues at the American Constitutional Convention \[in Philadelphia in 1787], the fundamental question sensed by everyone … was whether the people themselves would understand what it meant to hold the ultimate power of society, and whether they had enough sense of history and destiny to know where they had been and where they ought to be going. (Cousins; cited by Goodlad 1979: 40; emphasis added)