Hello,
I'm an Assistant Prof in the psych department at Penn State University's
Altoona Campus (Penn State has 20-some-odd campuses). My degree is in
Human Development and Family Studies (from PSU) and I teach Developmental
Psych and the intro course in the dept. of Human Dev. and Fam. Studies.
Our campus has mostly freshman and sophmores, so I don't usually get to work
with upper classmen or grad. students.
My research interest is in how children become storytellers (fictional
stories) and this has led me to look at play, storytelling, shared book-
reading, story grammars, emerging literacy, early school success and even
television viewing. I worked for many years as a preschool teacher, including
working with Head Start, and I am currently analyzing some stories told to
me by children in a Chapter 1 school, looking at their understanding of
goals and motives and how this fits with their adherence to a story grammar.
I'm also collecting data for a small longitudinal study looking at how
storytelling skill develops overtime, and how this does or does not connect
to their understanding of false belief.
I think of myself as a cultural-contextualist, but probably don't work
in any clear theoretical paradigm -- I suspect I'm a bit of a pragmatist
as well. I am also a consturctivist, so basically I think children have to
construct their understanding of what constitutes a story from interacting
with the environment around them, including how adults tell them stories,
and what is expected of them in terms of storytelling. I see subtle social
class distinctions as potentially having a big effect on the kinds of stories
chldren invent.
This is more than a screenful! Sorry :-)
Margaret S. Benson | Bitnet: enz@psuvm
Dept. of Psychology | Internet: enz@psuvm.psu.edu
119 Eiche Building |
Penn State Univ., Altoona | FAX: (814) 949-5547
Altoona, PA 16601 | Phone: (814) 949-5269 (work)
| (814) 238-5277 (home)