Filtness_A qualitative study of driver education_no details_FINAL.pdf (278.11 kB)
A mixed-methods study of driver education informed by the Goals for Driver Education: Do young drivers and educators agree on what was taught?
journal contribution
posted on 2018-05-29, 13:09 authored by David Rodwell, A.N. Hawkins, Narelle Haworth, Gregoire S. Larue, Lyndel Bates, Ashleigh FiltnessAshleigh FiltnessEvaluation research suggests that professional driver education and training has little effect on reducing the crash involvements of young drivers. Driver education and training programs have been criticised as being unsystematically designed and lacking an empirical or theoretical basis. The Goals for Driver Education (GDE) is a theoretical framework developed to address these criticisms. The GDE defines four hierarchical levels of driving behaviours and influences on driving and three individualised Person-specific factors that should be considered in driver education and training programs. The aim of this study was to compare and contrast, in a methodologically rigorous manner, the perceptions that young drivers (n = 22; Mage = 17.80 years, SD = 6.54 months) and driver educators (n = 10; Mage = 54.5 years, SD = 9.21 years) have of a professional driver education and training course they participated in or facilitated. Eight semi-structured focus groups were conducted and the GDE was used to direct the collection and analysis of the data. Young drivers mainly discussed basic driving skills located on the lower levels of the GDE rather than higher level abstract factors that increase risk for young drivers. Driver educators tended to group particular GDE levels and Person-specific factors together when discussing the driving course and paid limited attention to Goals and contexts of driving. Results suggest that driver educators should provide direct instruction regarding the more abstract social and contextual factors that influence driving to potentially increase the efficacy of driver education and training as a safety countermeasure.
Funding
This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme (project LP140100409).
History
School
- Design
Published in
Safety ScienceVolume
108Pages
140 - 148Citation
RODWELL, D. ...et al., 2018. A mixed-methods study of driver education informed by the Goals for Driver Education: Do young drivers and educators agree on what was taught?. Safety Science, 108, pp. 140-148.Publisher
© ElsevierVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Safety Science and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.04.017.Acceptance date
2018-04-23Publication date
2018-05-09ISSN
0925-7535Publisher version
Language
- en