Effects of three different approaches to crisis intervention training with pre-service teachers

In recent history, schools have acquired the responsibility for providing emotional support to students in crisis. Teachers are in a prefect position to provide this support, because they have established relationships and constant contact with their students. However, they require training to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to support students and identify those in need of further intervention.;Our study considered three different educational formats to guide pre-service teacher training in providing emotional support to students in crisis: individual reading, lecture-based presentation, and interactive workshop. The researcher prepared 10 counselors from the Alachua County Crisis Center to provide the training. We divided 178 students (preparing to teach kindergarten through 12th grade) into three groups based on class enrollment, and assigned to one of the training formats. Immediately after the 45-minute training sessions, participants completed three questionnaires: Teacher's Perceived Self-Efficacy Related to Adolescent Suicide Questionnaire-Altered (measuring attitude toward the provision of emotional support to students in crisis); the Relationship Inventory (measuring empathy); and Applied Knowledge of Crisis Skills (measuring the transfer of knowledge and skills).;Three separate one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were conducted to determine the effects of the three training programs on attitude, empathy, and transfer of knowledge and skills. The null hypothesis associated with each one-way ANOVA was assessed using a Type I error rate of 0.05. Estimates of effect size were computed using omega squared. Group differences in attitude or empathy were not found among the three groups. A significant difference was found in participants' transfer of knowledge and skills. Because a difference was found, three independent-samples t-tests were conducted to test for between-group differences. Group differences were found in level of knowledge and skill between the lecture and interactive groups, but not between the reading and lecture or reading and interactive groups. These differences must be interpreted with caution due to low reliability of the knowledge and skill instrument. Results of our study do not support using the crisis intervention-training program in the forms used in our study to increase the attitude, empathy, or transfer of knowledge and skill in pre-service teachers.