Education about child sexual abuse on interactive multimedia CD-Rom for undergraduate teachers

Abstract

In many countries, one aspect of health education, namely child sexual abuse, has become an important issue for teachers in pre-schools, primary schools and high schools to address. In Australia, many states now have mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by teachers to their Principals then to the police or the Department of Families. Consequently, as preparation for this role, all teachers should have appropriate knowledge and attitudes about child sexual abuse. This paper analyses the educational bases of an interactive multimedia CD-Rom module on child sexual abuse designed for use by Australian university undergraduate teachers, to enhance their knowledge and attitudes about child sexual abuse. This application of Bloom's Levels of Thinking Skills as well as Constructivist principles in designing educational multimedia may assist other educational curriculum developers when designing pedagogical interactivities that are appropriate, productive and relevant in teaching about child sexual abuse to undergraduate teachers.