Monday, 16 March 2015

NZTA Education Reference Day

NZTA Reference Day: 16th March 2015
Karen Melhuish Spencer
Videos to Watch:
Finland: 'Distracted Driving' – When you Drive, Just Drive
'Keep the Bromance Alive'
Recent publication from Shalom Hakkert and V Gitelman –
Ralph Nader – Unsafe at any speed
Doesn’t matter what the car is if it’s got no safety specs.
Discussion: When did you first learn something about road safety?
The roads is a commons – the roading system is the most expensive asset in NZ
New tech that is being put in under our roads to show how fast people are going
Andrea Milligan: Fac of Ed, Vic Uni (Wellington) – “citizenship education takes students beyond mere knowledge of society’s formal institutions and processes.”
On one hand – what are they experiencing – on the other hand – what is in our heads?
When we bring our own mental models into the issue – do we actually believe it?
Focus on Self vs Focus on Society Continuum:  Discussion
  • Still stuck on 1970s style of road safety
  • Only way you achieve adulthood is getting their drivers license. Perception around the car as bbeing the thing that marks you as an adult.
  • Parent as the taxi. Push to get them to get their licences – inadvertently push them there.
  • Drivers test should be cheaper –
  • School rules –
  • Change the continuum labels to – “My rights” vs “Responsibility to others”
  • All of our students will be bringing their own mental models. They will have very personal experiences.
  • If the students bring with them quite self centered starting points – our challenge is to challenge them to push towards the responsibilities to society aspect – moving towards front section of the curriculum – Principles.




Sarah: Maths curriculum resources

Moving away from crash and death to empowering people
She had to create something that was first and foremost going to get a Maths teacher to pick it up
‘How Far Until it Stops - Junior Maths PPDAC Investigation’ -
‘Random Sample of Stopping Distances’ - Collectively students know alot about this.


To start a maths lesson with a brainstorm gives them their contribution to the lesson - perhaps sometimes their first one for the whole year.
They use this to inquire certain aspects of driving - how far it takes for the vehicle to physically come to a stop, lots of outcomes from the Maths curriculum and then lots from the RSE outcomes


The Plateau:
A lot of teachers or other people say - “It’s about the behaviours…” = PB4L
From what we’ve seen - we don’t actually agree on what is okay and what isn’t okay. In the schools students need to engage in really well organised conversations about why do we have rules about road safety?


How do we get off of the plateau of having the stuff, the expo or the police coming in - to actually getting the conversations happening within the school. How do we make road safety something that our school sees as important?


Need follow up sessions after the Road Safety expos - too many tick box events.


Approaches to road safety education:
What do you understand these to mean?


Fear Appeals
Transmission, skills-based teaching
Actively contributing to a safe network
Shock factor, fear and nothing really changes. Lots of schools are still in this area
Chalk and talk, strategies and skills learnt
Talking about the issue and actively becoming involved in changing the situation


How do we change the conversation around this?


What do our students need? What works and why?


The culture of the area is how it’s going to work. It’s when their prior knowledge is being targeted that there is some actual buy in.
  • Context
  • Continuity
  • Relevance
  • Community
  • Culture - local


Sprint #1: Identify our Challenge
Where to focus our attention next?


How might we? understand, create, help, ensure, engage, build, access, rethink, refine, redefine, encourage, raise awareness of…


If not “expo”, then what?


“When I went back to say that expo’s don’t work -


Needs to have some sort of continuity. Should fit in within
Have specific examples for different subjects.
Needs to become part of our NZ Curriculum. Need to enable the KC’s.


Road Safety Education fits the Key Competencies.


Needs to be planned. Needs to be visible on TKI.


How might we (NZTA):….
  • help schools navigate conflicting influences?
  • help senior leaders of school understand value of linking curriculum?
  • help encourage cross-curricular links (MLE, BYOD)
  • make the NZTA work visible
  • co-ordinate the different levels and subject areas? Juniors particularly - not limited by assessment.
  • target teacher trainees?
  • involve student voice?
  • grow community passion and local schools in the area?


If we want our students to be good citizens we would have to step away from credit-gathering!


School values - something will have to do with community. This is a topic that has significance for their lives.


As citizens of the world we have the responsibility to make a positive difference for everyone, particularly on our roads.




Here are a a few videos from the NZTA Ref Day





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