Avoiding the TSE resource stagnation
Keywords: Education
ARSRPE
Submission Date: 2008
Abstract
The launch of a new resource for road safety education usually occurs as a result of the need to update existing resources, often seen to be out-of-date, or to reflect the introduction of new curriculum.
The development, production and implementation of new resources come at great expense to road safety and education practitioners, particularly knowing their life-span can be limited and subject to changing government policy and ongoing educational reform.
Victoria has taken a new approach to resource development. Traffic safety education resources and programs are developed on a ?core? and ?enrichment? model. Core resources provide schools with the essential learning (minimum amount) that students need at given stages of childhood development, matched with exposure to traffic and trauma outcomes. They also focuses on parent engagement at these times. New and existing resources and programs are linked to the core program to enrich learning in any given area of traffic safety education.
This paper will describe the research underpinning the new approach, the steps taken to develop a new resource for secondary schools based on behaviour change principles, the actions being taken to incrementally enrich the resource to provide it with longer currency and higher levels of relevancy to both teachers and students, and preliminary evaluation outcomes.