PowerPoint-Pr

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Traffic and mobility psychology/education Insights
on childrens behaviour
Mobiel 21 March 2008Elke Bossaert, Lies Lambert
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Contents

• Children ? small adults
• Traffic mobility education
• How and why of campaigns
• such as the Traffic Snake Game

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Children ? small adults

• Move in and through traffic in a different way,
• different perception,
• different way of thinking,
• different way of handling,
• but ready and eager to learn!

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Perceiving / Perception

• Seeing
• Children have a different point of
  view.literally
• Hearing
• Directions are difficult and hard to determine
• Attention
• Experiencing the world from a self-centred point
  of view
• Attention is diversified before the age of 8 it
  is difficult, if not impossible to give attention
  to the most important things in traffic

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Perceiving / Perception (2)

• Viewing behaviour of a 9-year old without cycling
  experience (number of fixation 13 )

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Perceiving / Perception (3)

• Viewing behaviour of a 9-year old with cycling
  experience (number of fixation 4 )

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Thinking

• Magical Thinking
• Magical thinking is a child's belief that what he
  or she wishes or expects can affect what really
  happens
• Till the age of 4 to 5, reality and fantasy seem
  to collide with each other
• Difficulty to understand that what they want is
  not always what they will get

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Thinking (2)

• Magical Thinking (2)
• Example a car approaching

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Thinking (3)

• Egocentric thinking
• Normal tendency for a young child
• See everything that happens as it relates to him
  or herself. This is not selfishness.
• Young children are unable to understand different
  points of view
• Example I see the car approaching...
• From research it is clear that only from the age
  of about 12 a clear distinction is made between
  what you see and being seen

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Thinking (4)

• Conditional logic and thinking
• From the age of 7 or 8 most children are in a
  position to start thinking about conditions
• Able to estimate timings
• Example car approaching, when to cross the road

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Thinking (5)

• Conditional logic and thinking (2)
• Children under 8 years old, see the movements,
  know how it works, but dont see the proces
• Example seeing a car approaching, timing when it
  will cross, seeing the process of a car needing
  distance to come to a full stop

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Acting

• Motoral compentence
• Under the age of 6 any motoral activity such as
  walking demands all the attention.
• Motoral skills are still developing
• Example crossing a street and stepping onto a
  high pavement
• Learning to cycle is an even more complex task.
• Example first learning how to move in a moving
  environment

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Acting (2)

• Play
• The outside world is one big play arena
• Traffic, zebra crossings, high pavements
• are all challenges that need to be explored as
  in a game
• Knowing and doing
• From the age of 6 children are ready to learn
  traffic regulations. However a lot of practice is
  needed to create an automatism

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Acting (3)

• Impulsivity
• 2 big groups of children show riskful behaviour
• The big mouths
• The scary crows

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Learning

• Children learn easily
• Learn most of all by imitating behaviour
• Role of champions, teachers and most of all
  parents!

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Learning (2)

• Procedural Declarative
• knowledge knowledge
• Affective
• knowledge

Knowing that E.g. a green light means safe to
go
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Learning (3)

• Procedural Declarative
• knowledge knowledge
• Affective
• knowledge

Knowing how... E.g. a green light means safe to
go, yet I must look first at the left, than at
the right, than at the left again gt knowing in
interaction with environment!
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Learning (4)

• Procedural Declarative
• knowledge knowledge
• Affective
• knowledge

Subjective relation to real-life
interactions E.g. confidence and faith in riding
a bike E.g. what to do when a car is wrongly
parked in the bike lane
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Learning (5)

• Procedural Declarative
• knowledge knowledge
• Affective
• knowledge

INTERACTION !!! Complex relationship between
these aspects. Interaction with real-life,
experiences and expectations are crucial.
Metacognitive skills and knowledge (planning,
strategies!)
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Traffic and mobility education

• Traditional traffic education
• Safety education, no correlation with environment
• To adapt children as weak traffic participants
  -safety and prevention of accidents
• By reglementation, adapting to the system, fear,
  attentivity
• In class

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Traffic and mobility education (2)

• Contemporary mobility education
• Traffic AND mobility
• Safety education but also ecological topics,
  sustainability, autonomy, health
• To have children as active traffic participants
• Children as pedestrians and cyclists
• Childs perspective ? small adult perspective
• From learning in a classroom over a safe and
  protected environment to learning in real life
  situations and in real traffic

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Traffic and mobility education (3)

• Mobility education is consciously thinking of the
  different modes of transport, their advantages
  and disadvantages
• Learning by doing
• Learning by imitation

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Why campaigns like the TSG?

• Putting traffic and mobility (education) in the
  picture
• showing the importance to the parents
• showing the neighbourhood

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Why campaigns like the TSG? (2)

• Cooperation, collaboration with parents
  (imitation function!)
• Successful triangle parents, teachers, pupils
• Cooperation and collaboration with local
  government is a motivator

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Why campaigns like the TSG? (3)

• Can be a mere campaign. But even then a lot of
  parties involved!
• Can be a stepping stone for traffic and mobility
  education
• Can be a stepping stone for traffic and mobility
  issues beyond education