D6.2 Train-the-trainer manua

Abstract

This manual is meant to support lecturers who wish to incorporate a course on road safety into the curriculum of another educational program. Various professions have linkages with the problems and issues related to road safety. For some of these it is evident: engineering and technology, political and social sciences. In other professions, specific aspects of road safety can hold important input.  Road safety education requires a place in the training of teachers (primary and secondary schools), since children need to be taught as early as possible how to behave safely on the road.  Government wanting to set up an effective enforcement plan need to ensure police men have good knowledge of road safety behaviour.  For new drivers, learning to drive concerns not only traffic rules and handling a car, but also understanding the psychology of a road user and traffic in general. Furthermore, many more professions deal with road safety issues in their job which makes it worthwhile considering implementing aspects of road safety into the existing curriculum. The first part of this manual will focus on the importance of implementing road safety curricula. The first chapter explains the current road safety situation and related problems in Africa. This overview provides arguments for exposing more students to road safety expertise. Chapter two speaks about the most common framework in road safety: the Safe System approach. It provides a definition and broader context on what road safety really constitutes: a systematic and combined approach of all important elements. Road safety is not only a matter of building strong roads – it requires various coordinated actions and significant engagement from authorities, stakeholders and road users. On the basis of these two theoretical chapters, examples will be given to provide an indication of which learning outcomes could be of relevance for which profession/curriculum. These examples are not exhaustive, and are primarily intended to inspire the reader for the analysis of their situation. This is vital, since road safety implementation will vary depending on the context of a country’s organisational structure with regard to traffic and road safety. Special attention will be given to the education of road safety auditors and road safety inspectors. The second part of this manual is more didactical. It discusses the main aspects of organising a specific curriculum. Experienced teacher will already have sufficient background in developing a course, however we recommend to pay particular attention to the chapter on learning outcomes. A key error experts make when organising trainings is the attempt to pass on their entire knowledge to their students, even if these students have an entirely different background and profession. Emphasising how students can apply their newly gained road safety knowledge in their profession is crucial in order to ensure engagement during these trainings. The following chapter on ‘Tools and Methodology’ discusses three interesting road safety case studies. Working with case studies is an effective tool to demonstrate the interlinkages of various road safety elements. Furthermore, we propose leaving the classroom and using live examples as a learning experience drawing on reality is definitely worth the time investment to engage participants. As a third possibility, we discuss the option of working with E-learning tools in combination with a classroom course. The SaferAfrica project has developed various E-learning modules concerning road safety issues that can provide a great general introduction to the subject. In the last chapter we emphasise the importance of evaluations and various techniques thereof. This manual does not provide detailed content for a road safety curriculum. A lot of documentation is already available on the various topics and expertise regarding road safety. A comprehensive list of references for further reading can be found at the end of the course. Additionally, extensive material can also be found on the SaferAfrica website: http://www.saferafrica.eu/ .