The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Chapter 7 Perceptions of Streetsense

This chapter aims to examine the perceptions of key stakeholders in relation to the use of Streetsense, its packaging and layout.

7.1 General perception

The resource was very well regarded by any who had made use of it. It was almost universally seen as easy to use. 93% of teachers responding to the survey who had used Streetsense agreed it was easy to use.

It was seen as well presented and teacher friendly. The formats that are used are typically ones that teachers are accustomed to, making it instantly more accessible.

It was seen as offering a good choice of activities. There was some suggestion from interviews that there were too many options offered but 86% teachers in the survey felt it offered a good choice of activities and only 13% felt that there were too many activities suggested.

Table 7.1; Perceptions of Streetsense

Base = 146; those using Streetsense

It was seen as a strength that Streetsense offers a choice of activities to select from thus improving its flexibility. Teachers liked the fact that they could dip into it without having to work through the entire pack.

Teachers praised it as containing a 'lot of meat' and not merely colouring pictures. Some also commented that the children enjoy using the resource.

" For example if somebody was taking over a class and hadn't used it before, they would think it was really straightforward. The sheets are here, the teacher doesn't have to go anywhere else"
Teacher

One teacher did however think that it was quite prescriptive and whilst this was generally seen as a positive feature - being comforting and easy - it might be seen as a constraint by others.

Another teacher felt that it was an improvement on their previous 'Ways to Safety' but had concerns about the children doing this every year and potentially feeling that it was repetitive. She was unsure whether this was a fault of the resource or of the way in which she was using it which was very worksheet based.

It was seen as being very well matched to the levels at which it was set.

Only one Road Safety Officer felt that it was not easy to use on its current format and she felt that it would not be used unless teachers were encouraged to use it.

Perhaps most importantly, the children are perceived by teachers as enjoying using this resource. 79% of teachers agreed that the children enjoy it and only 1% disagreed with this. This was reinforced by the short discussions with the JRSO in some of the schools visited. They generally recognised the Streetsense activities and spoke of enjoying them.

7.2 Packaging

Although there were few negative comments about the content of the resource a number of people did say that the sheer size of the resource could appear daunting and may be off-putting to teachers in the early stages who have not yet developed an understanding of how the resource works and the options it contains for selection.

Some suggested that it be loose-leaf for easy photocopying but another felt that if there were loose-leaf sheets they would be more likely to be lost.

The size of the pack attracted some comments. One teacher felt that the fact it was in a folder was off-putting as it could just as easily have been in book format thereby occupying much less space. One Road Safety Officer did point out that it took up less space than the resource that it replaced.

It was also seen as a strength that the folders were laminated and hard wearing. Another Road Safety Officer also saw the fact that the packaging was so robust and unlikely to break as an advantage.

Another view was that there may be difficulties in keeping the resource together as teachers extract different parts of it.

7.3 Additional resources

All interviewees were asked for their comments on the additional resources that accompany Streetsense or if they had any further suggestions for additional resources.

Most of the comments on existing additional resources related to teachers' inability to locate them. It is clear that some schools have already misplaced some of their additional materials. It would therefore be beneficial if there was a facility to order additional copies as required and for multiple copies to be made available. One Road Safety Officer emphasised that additional materials could be ordered directly from them. It may be that teachers are unaware that many of these additional materials can be ordered from their local Road Safety Officers and this perhaps needs to be made clear.

The most common suggestions for improved additional materials were for visual prompts and interactive activity.

Some teachers welcomed visual clips that could prompt class discussion. One teacher asked for small video clips in DVD format that would illustrate topics.

Whilst interactive materials seemed like a good idea to many teachers there would be constraints on their use. Many primary classes only have one computer available per class and lessons that require interactivity would need access to the ICT suite where time is very limited.

However one teacher did feel that children benefited from CDs or interactive material as they were an aid to memory and were useful to reinforce learning and as independent activity. DVDs, which supported Streetsense, could additionally be used to support the JRSOs within the school.

It was also mentioned that in future, there should be no need to produce CDs but just to provide anything that previously would have been on CD on the web instead. This will overcome the problems of CDs becoming lost but will require all schools have easy access.

One Road Safety Officer was less sure of the benefits of DVDs or video and felt that they might in fact detract from the opportunity for debate. She did however welcome some of the interactive tools such as the hedgehog activity which is to be found on the DfT website.

There was one concern expressed that interactive materials may encourage children to see road safety as a game which was not a desired outcome.

"I also feel that some DVDs that are interactive for young children, it's difficult for them to work out reality and what's not reality"
Road Safety Officer

There have been some problems noted about ease of access to such sites and some schools have been unable to gain access. Edinburgh schools for example can't access the Streetwise website because of their security blocks.

"Streetwise is obviously a title that they can't access because of the computer system to protect the children"
Road Safety Officer

There are also problems with change in moving over to more interactive methods. It was suggested that some teachers remain quite averse to downloading and use of technology. Despite this, it is expected that this will increasingly be used as an aid to teaching.

Other resources available on websites outside the control of Road Safety Scotland may change and references to these sites within Streetsense may no longer be available. Given the speed with which websites can change, this is an issue worth consideration when printing into any hard copy that is expected to have a long shelf life.

Interactive white boards were also mentioned. These are becoming more common in schools and teachers will be willing to make use of them for this type of lesson in due course.

"If you can come up with a package that used IWB then these are becoming more and more used in schools. We're waiting for our training"
Teacher

One of the university lecturers interviewed agreed that since access to the web is improving, interactive materials placed here might be the way forward. Another of the lecturers agreed but stressed the need to ensure there was no site license costs associated with this. Some disappointment was expressed by one of the lecturers with the existing website, expecting it to be more interactive than it is. She felt that children are no longer content to see only one thing on the page which is animated.

Further she would like to see the web used to provide the opportunity for children to put their own work on the site for others to see and for teachers to be able to share information as well.

7.4 Layout

There were some comments in depth interviews about the visual impact of the resource. A number of interviewees felt that the illustrations particularly in the later levels were overly childlike for that age group. This was tested in the survey of schools. Only 12% of teachers agreed with the statement 'The illustrations for levels D and E are too childlike'. 29% disagreed with this and 59% neither agreed nor disagreed or had no opinion.

One of the lecturers felt that the line drawing and graphics at level A were insufficiently clear for children at level A and that more generally some of the drawings were a bit old fashioned. Another of the lecturers warned that when children see such pictures, they can tend to make instant negative judgements.

« Previous | Contents | Next »