The aims of this research were to identify examples of road safety education (RSE) in Scottish secondary schools, both state and independent, and to highlight examples of good practice.
Start Date: 01/10/2001
End Date: 01/04/2002
This research was completed in April 2002. It found that very little RSE was being taught in S3 to S6 in Scottish secondary schools. The main reason for this was that RSE was not considered appropriate, either by teachers or their pupils, for upper secondary school. “Road safety” carried with it connotations of primary school and of learning rules by rote. In addition, lack of teaching time and lack of good resources were seen as additional problems.
Teachers and pupils suggested resources to support RSE, such as drama, videos, CD-ROMs, advertisements, campaigns, conferences, speakers, witness testimony and ICT. Devices should be used to help the pupils identify with the characters or a situation, such as the use of local data, participants with Scottish accents and the use of local contacts.
It was important that new resources came well supported with good, clear and attractive teachers’ materials.
The infrastructure of the Scottish education system was also highlighted. The SRSC should promote RSE through the Scottish Executive Education Department, which in turn would be able to influence local authorities.
“Road safety education” should be renamed. It should be treated as a topic related to personal safety and risk taking, and promoted and taught in this context. Collaborative work should be carried out between the SRSC and other health promoting organisations, to tackle risk taking across a wide range of issues. This would help RSE to be perceived and assimilated as a more adult topic.
A report is available by clicking here.
You will need Adobe Acrobat in order to view these PDF files.