The evaluation of traffic education programmes; Recommendations for measuring the effects and a proposal for an abbreviated measuring instrument. A thorough evaluation is important for the quality improvement of traffic education programmes. Presently, this is not done sufficiently. This report contains advice that can help developers and users of traffic education programmes to evaluate their programmes. The report focuses on measuring the effects regarding content, and therefore does not go into the evaluation of procedural aspects of education programmes. The evaluation of traffic education programmes is part of a larger process of quality assurance: the so-called PDCA cycle (PLAN, DO, CHECK, ACT). In the development phase of the programme, the programme's target group and their behaviour, the educational goals, and the didactic approach must be taken into account. The evaluation is only worthwhile when this is done thoroughly, because it then becomes clear which educational goals are being assessed. The evaluation is part of the CHECK phase. The reduction of the number of road casualties is the ultimate purpose of most traffic education programmes. As it is impossible to directly relate educational programmes to the numbers of road casualties, the evaluation generally assesses the effect on variables that are known to be related to road safety, for example high-risk behaviour. To be able to relate a programme to, for instance, high-risk behaviour it is important to choose an adequate research design for the evaluation. Often alternative explanations can be given for an observed effect and it is essential to exclude these. A good study consists of a before and an after measurement in an experimental and in a control group. Once the evaluation has been optimally carried out and no positive effect or only a negative effect can be established, the time has come to go through the development phase of the programme once more. Because programmes are often not evaluated sufficiently, this report proposes an accessible method that can help and motivate developers and users to evaluate their programmes. The proposal is to build a database with clusters of questions. These clusters should be constructed on the basis of subject (e.g. alcohol, safe cycling) and competence (e.g. knowledge, attitude).
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