In Germany, driving license applicants acquire their basic driving skills for independent participation in motorized road traffic broadly during a compulsory driver training in a commercial, state-approved driving school. This driver training is based mainly on concepts that have been established in the 70s and 80s and supplemented subsequently. Given the progress in teaching and learning research and in transport sciences, searching for new suggestions to optimise driver training is advised. In addition, the increased accident risk of novice drivers suggests that solely driver training is not sufficient to convey novice drivers all the competencies they need for a safe driving on the road. For this reason, it also seems desirable to complement the training by (cost-effective) informal teaching and learning forms contributing to build up a broader level of driving competence. In this project, the contents, methods, and forms of implementation of driver training were analysed. Moreover, scientifically justified approaches to the further development of driver training were worked out. The research and development work involved outlining a driver training curriculum for the theory classes and the practical driving instruction. Furthermore it included the development of interfaces with informal teaching and learning forms (especially independent theory learning) in order to achieve synergies. The developed optimization approaches were described and scientifically justified. Moreover, implementation approaches and prototypical reference teaching units were developed. Taken as a whole, the results of the project can be considered as a conceptual basis for the optimisation of driver training and the improvement of its traffic safety potential. (Author/publisher)
Abstract