Modernized teaching material and methodology for road safety educators Erasmus Project

Project Title

Modernized teaching material and methodology for road safety educators

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries

Project Summary

The project: „Modernized teaching material and methodology for road safety educators“ main idea was to strengthen international cooperation between three project partners through two student mobilities, four international project meetings, one intellectual output and one dissemination event.

Project partners are:

1. Tallinn University Haapsalu College (TUHC) – Beneficiary
Haapsalu College is a regional college and a campus of Tallinn University situated in Haapsalu. College provides applied (professional) higher education programmes in 4 different fields:Traffic safety, Handicraft Technology and Design, Health Promotion Specialist and Applied Computer Science.

2. Nord University, Stjørdal – Partner
Nord University Stjørdal hosts studies within traffic and transport, as well as part-time studies within health care and pharmacy.

3. Häme Vocational Institute Driving Instructor Education Centre – Partner
Häme Vocational Institute is a multi-disciplinary upper secondary level institute comprising of special units for agriculture, dairy production, driving instructor training and horticulture and landscaping. The institute produces skilled graduates with vocational qualifications in forestry, the dairy industry, farming, horticulture and landscaping. Upper secondary vocational qualifications can be taken as part-time studies.

The project subject “Road safety” has brought the project partners together before the project and will do it certainly in the future as well. Road safety is a commonly shared interest between the three partners. TUHC has a curriculum of Traffic safety, Nord University, Stjørdal has it’s own driving school and many curricula connected with road safety, Häme Vocational Institute has an independent department dedicated to road safety: Driving Instructor Education Centre. As traffic safety education is rather unique and exclusive subject in higher education – the three partners are best suitable in Norten-Europe.

One of the project main objectives was to develop new study material for road safety education providers in order to improve road safety through the development of driving teachers’ education in Estonia, Finland and Norway. In order to complete this objective several activities were carried out:

1. Four international project meetings – Originally were planned three meetings each connected with one of the other activities (two with student mobilities and one with dissemination event), but for the compilation of a book the writers needed one additional meeting, just to clarify different aspects concerning the textbook.

2. Two student teaching and learning mobilities – one in Finland (participated: 5 students from Estonia, 5 students from Norway and 8 students from Finland) and the other in Norway (participated: 6 students from Estonia, 9 students from Norway and 4 students from Finland). Both student mobilities contributed into the writing of a textbook. In the first mobility students and teachers tested several ideas and gather thoughts about topics that should be in the textbook and in second mobility students gave feedback to the articles composed.

3. Dissemination event in Estonia – road safety conference: Theory and Practice in Driver Education. The dissemination event was dedicated to the intellectual output and was a success in every way. There were two keynote speakers talking about overall ideas and state of road safety in Europe and also all the writers introducing their chapter of the textbook. All the participants (119 people) had a chance to acquire the new textbook.

The textbook was released in October 2018 and all the project partners had 200 copies of the book. As the book was written in English TUHC translated all the articles into Estonian and the articles together with the videos made from the conference are now being used as a study material in Traffic safety curriculum. The created textbook is also available for all the interested parties on project partners’ websites.

During the project all the participating teachers and students gained new experience, improved their English language skills, improved cooperation and intercultural skills. Project partners gained new teaching and learning material, strengthened their international cooperation and improved the quality of higher education in their institutions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 106148,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

TALLINN UNIVERSITY & Country: EE

Project Partners

• Hämeen ammatti-instituutti Oy
• HOGSKOLEN I NORD TRONDELAG