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Fundamentals of safety education
RECENT PUBLICATIONS Accident Analysis and Prevention invites authors and publishers
tation in Recent Publications. length studies are welcome.
Books,
conference
proceedings.
to submit mnterinl for presenresearch reports and other full-
Persons wishing to review publiccltions for the journal are encouraged address ond ore(ts of interest.
to submit their name,
All prrbliccttions and inquiries should be directed to: Jane C. Stutts, Book Review Editor Highway Safety Reseurch Center University of North Carolina, CTP 197A Chapel Hill, NC 215 14, U.S.A.
Fundamentals of Safety Education. Third
Ralph C. Bohn. Macmillan
Publishing
Edition. Marland K. Strasser, James E. Aaron and Co., Inc., New York, NY 1981. 498 pp.
Safety education involves by necessity a variety of very diverse activities and to cover them in one introductory volume is by no means an easy task. It is therefore surprising that Fundamentals of Safety Education attempts much more than that; it presents almost every aspect of accident prevention. Movement,” The book is organized in four parts. Part One, “The Accident Prevention provides extensive statistical data on accidents and reviews the agencies operative in traffic, home, industry, school, farm, fire and public accident prevention. It also presents a “safety consciousness” philosophy, emphasizing positive safety approaches, and discusses underlying psychological factors; identifying attitudes and personality traits as major ones. Besides education, accident recording, enforcement, engineering, selection, training, incentives and evaluation and research are also recognized as powerful techniques in accident prevention. This rather general introduction emphasizes that accidents can occur in any situation in which human performance is subject to error and indicates that eduction is only one of many methods to increase safety in an interdisciplinary approach. The philosophy of “safety consciousness” is continued in Part Two, “The School Safety Program.” Using the school as example, management problems as diverse as the school environment, pupil transportation, and liability and insurance are touched upon. Safety education is considered in terms of the school curriculum and in terms of instructional methods and media use. The third part, “Fundamentals of Safe Living,” covers safety aspects of various areas of human activities. It presents a well-documented case for the central thesis that accidents occur in any situation that involves human activities. In the home, many accidents such as falls, burns and poisoning are threats to life and health that can be prevented by relatively simple precautions. Occupational accidents call for a programmatic managerial approach as outlined in the school safety program. Public safety is threatened by falls, drowning, fire-arms accidents and accidents resulting from diverse recreational activities. Supervision and educational programs, that improve knowledge and attitudes, are advocated as means to enhance public 167
if+
Recent Publicatlun,
safety. Traffic and transportation are the major cause of accidental death: alcohol, speed and the condition of the vehicle are identified as contributing factors. Education. engineering, enforcement and licensing are discussed as the major tools to combat the problem. Fires can take many forms and shapes and knowledge of prevention and control measures can reduce fire damage. Although disasters cannot be controlled, preparedness for diverse occurrences such as military attack, hurricanes. earthquakes and blizzards is considered as an approach to reduce suffering in these events. In Part Four. “Towards a Safer Future.” three topics are considered: safety in adult and higher education. which includes the role of mass media: evaluation and research: and finally career opportunities in the field of safety. Safety education is not a discipline on its own. It is (or should be) embedded in an integrated approach to accident prevention, in which engineering, legislation and enforcement are equal components. In this systems approach the primary objectives of safety education are to create a greater awareness of a positive safety concept. This safety concept should be operative in every area of human activity that can lead to accident occurrence. These two themes, the systems management approach and the universal safety concept approach, are emphasized throughout the book. Valuable though these may be. their repeated presentation has prevented a detailed discussion of safety education as a separate discipline. Safety education is not only part of an integrated approach to safety, it is also embedded in education and psychology. Theories of learning and instruction, attitude theories, social psychology, task analysis techniques, psychometric theory, mass media research, behavior modification, cognitive psychology and evaluation research are some of the many disciplines that have direct relevancy for safety education. If safety education is to have a major impact on accident occurrence. its basis has td be derived from these disciplines. Apart from a discussion on attitude formation and methods of instruction no attempt is made to discuss these fundamental areas in relation to safety education. The result is that the reader is Eft wondering how safety education is going to play its role in the advocated integrated approach. More detailed discussion of the techniques methods and outcomes of safety education and integration of recent research results would have made this point much clearer. Integrated rather than separate discussion of practice and research would also have emphasized that safety education is a rapidly changing field, and hopefully would have allowed a presentation of recent research results that have direct practical relevance. In that sense, “Fundamentals of Safety Education” presents a well documented historical perspective (which can no doubt be attributed partly to the fact that this is the third edition), but can at the same time be accused of being somewhat outdated. This is reflected in both references and text. Modern concepts such as risk perception and risk taking, behavior-specific attitudes, task analysis or health education approaches remain unmentioned. The need for and the results of carefully designed evaluation studies are hardly discussed, while these could have substantiated the value of the advocated safety education efforts. Another limitation I found in the almost provincial Americanism. Nowhere in the text or references was there a hint that safety education exists outside the United States. The important progress in the field of safety education that has been made in Japan and many European countries remains unmentioned, even though some of it is readily accessible through the WHO and OECD publications. This fact alone makes this text of limited value for any course outside (and hopefully inside) the U.S. In many ways “Fundamentals of Safety Education” is essentially a paradox: it adopts a broad approach to accident prevention but is limited in the discussion of safety education as accident prevention countermeasure. The proposed integrated safety approach does not specify the role of safety education and discusses safety education without embedding it in educational or psychological theory and practice. It presents a wealth of facts and figures in relation to accident occurrence but no figures substantiating the effects of countermeasures and in particular the effects of safety education. Thus it leaves the one and only important question unanswered: is safety education worth the cost? TALIB ROTHENCATTER
University of Groningen
tation in Recent Publications. length studies are welcome.
Books,
conference
proceedings.
to submit mnterinl for presenresearch reports and other full-
Persons wishing to review publiccltions for the journal are encouraged address ond ore(ts of interest.
to submit their name,
All prrbliccttions and inquiries should be directed to: Jane C. Stutts, Book Review Editor Highway Safety Reseurch Center University of North Carolina, CTP 197A Chapel Hill, NC 215 14, U.S.A.
Fundamentals of Safety Education. Third
Ralph C. Bohn. Macmillan
Publishing
Edition. Marland K. Strasser, James E. Aaron and Co., Inc., New York, NY 1981. 498 pp.
Safety education involves by necessity a variety of very diverse activities and to cover them in one introductory volume is by no means an easy task. It is therefore surprising that Fundamentals of Safety Education attempts much more than that; it presents almost every aspect of accident prevention. Movement,” The book is organized in four parts. Part One, “The Accident Prevention provides extensive statistical data on accidents and reviews the agencies operative in traffic, home, industry, school, farm, fire and public accident prevention. It also presents a “safety consciousness” philosophy, emphasizing positive safety approaches, and discusses underlying psychological factors; identifying attitudes and personality traits as major ones. Besides education, accident recording, enforcement, engineering, selection, training, incentives and evaluation and research are also recognized as powerful techniques in accident prevention. This rather general introduction emphasizes that accidents can occur in any situation in which human performance is subject to error and indicates that eduction is only one of many methods to increase safety in an interdisciplinary approach. The philosophy of “safety consciousness” is continued in Part Two, “The School Safety Program.” Using the school as example, management problems as diverse as the school environment, pupil transportation, and liability and insurance are touched upon. Safety education is considered in terms of the school curriculum and in terms of instructional methods and media use. The third part, “Fundamentals of Safe Living,” covers safety aspects of various areas of human activities. It presents a well-documented case for the central thesis that accidents occur in any situation that involves human activities. In the home, many accidents such as falls, burns and poisoning are threats to life and health that can be prevented by relatively simple precautions. Occupational accidents call for a programmatic managerial approach as outlined in the school safety program. Public safety is threatened by falls, drowning, fire-arms accidents and accidents resulting from diverse recreational activities. Supervision and educational programs, that improve knowledge and attitudes, are advocated as means to enhance public 167
if+
Recent Publicatlun,
safety. Traffic and transportation are the major cause of accidental death: alcohol, speed and the condition of the vehicle are identified as contributing factors. Education. engineering, enforcement and licensing are discussed as the major tools to combat the problem. Fires can take many forms and shapes and knowledge of prevention and control measures can reduce fire damage. Although disasters cannot be controlled, preparedness for diverse occurrences such as military attack, hurricanes. earthquakes and blizzards is considered as an approach to reduce suffering in these events. In Part Four. “Towards a Safer Future.” three topics are considered: safety in adult and higher education. which includes the role of mass media: evaluation and research: and finally career opportunities in the field of safety. Safety education is not a discipline on its own. It is (or should be) embedded in an integrated approach to accident prevention, in which engineering, legislation and enforcement are equal components. In this systems approach the primary objectives of safety education are to create a greater awareness of a positive safety concept. This safety concept should be operative in every area of human activity that can lead to accident occurrence. These two themes, the systems management approach and the universal safety concept approach, are emphasized throughout the book. Valuable though these may be. their repeated presentation has prevented a detailed discussion of safety education as a separate discipline. Safety education is not only part of an integrated approach to safety, it is also embedded in education and psychology. Theories of learning and instruction, attitude theories, social psychology, task analysis techniques, psychometric theory, mass media research, behavior modification, cognitive psychology and evaluation research are some of the many disciplines that have direct relevancy for safety education. If safety education is to have a major impact on accident occurrence. its basis has td be derived from these disciplines. Apart from a discussion on attitude formation and methods of instruction no attempt is made to discuss these fundamental areas in relation to safety education. The result is that the reader is Eft wondering how safety education is going to play its role in the advocated integrated approach. More detailed discussion of the techniques methods and outcomes of safety education and integration of recent research results would have made this point much clearer. Integrated rather than separate discussion of practice and research would also have emphasized that safety education is a rapidly changing field, and hopefully would have allowed a presentation of recent research results that have direct practical relevance. In that sense, “Fundamentals of Safety Education” presents a well documented historical perspective (which can no doubt be attributed partly to the fact that this is the third edition), but can at the same time be accused of being somewhat outdated. This is reflected in both references and text. Modern concepts such as risk perception and risk taking, behavior-specific attitudes, task analysis or health education approaches remain unmentioned. The need for and the results of carefully designed evaluation studies are hardly discussed, while these could have substantiated the value of the advocated safety education efforts. Another limitation I found in the almost provincial Americanism. Nowhere in the text or references was there a hint that safety education exists outside the United States. The important progress in the field of safety education that has been made in Japan and many European countries remains unmentioned, even though some of it is readily accessible through the WHO and OECD publications. This fact alone makes this text of limited value for any course outside (and hopefully inside) the U.S. In many ways “Fundamentals of Safety Education” is essentially a paradox: it adopts a broad approach to accident prevention but is limited in the discussion of safety education as accident prevention countermeasure. The proposed integrated safety approach does not specify the role of safety education and discusses safety education without embedding it in educational or psychological theory and practice. It presents a wealth of facts and figures in relation to accident occurrence but no figures substantiating the effects of countermeasures and in particular the effects of safety education. Thus it leaves the one and only important question unanswered: is safety education worth the cost? TALIB ROTHENCATTER
University of Groningen