The LEARN! Manual sets out guidelines for developing and evaluating activities and programmes for traffic safety and mobility education. It is envisaged as a starting point for those who design, test, implement and evaluate educational activities on traffic safety and mobility, and are embarking upon the creation of new, or updating existing, activities. The manual presents recommendations, criteria and guidance that should ensure qualitatively sound educational activities in an accessible way. It is not envisaged as an academic guidance document that sets out every step and aspect in exhaustive detail, however it contains references per section to such documents for
developers who are inspired to read further into specific topics or aspects.
The LEARN! Manual can also prove useful to ministries, authorities, agencies and organisations when deciding on which (proposals for) activities and projects to fund, as the guidelines reflect a list of minimum criteria that should be included or be given thought to, in order to ensure qualitatively sound material. In a similar way, the LEARN! Manual can also be useful for head teachers, traffic contact teachers and regular teachers when they select which material to use.
Moreover, the LEARN! Manual aims to facilitate the exchange of best practice across Europe, as through the development of common terminology it will be easier to share experiences and learn from each other.
Part I provides some general thoughts about traffic safety and mobility education and sets out definitions and the scope of this manual. Part II and Part III are the core of this manual. Part II sets out the guidelines for designing, testing, implementing and evaluating traffic safety and mobility activities. Part III contains the handbook which provides detailed information and explanations of the guidelines’ steps:
- The model’s starting point is an analysis of the problem and the possible solutions (Step 1).
- Based on this analysis, you will be able to specify the objectives for the activity (Step 2).
- The outcomes of these steps, combined with insights from behavioural change models (Step 3), will help you in designing the activity (Step 4).
- It is then essential to pre-test the activity (Step 5), and adapt the design, if necessary.
- Subsequently produce the materials necessary for the activity (Step 6) and implement it (Step 7).
- Evaluating the activity (Step 8) will then tell you if the objectives for your activity were reached or not, and which elements have contributed to these results, following which you can write a final report on the results and the lessons learnt during the activity.
Part IV subsequently provides examples on how to use the LEARN! Manual’s model in practice.
