Road accident risk: an investigation into various assessment methodologies

It has been argued that the major cause of road accidents is due to human error, and that drivers modify their behaviour on the road according to the level of risk they perceive in the road environment. Unfortunately, due to a lack of suitable methodologies no reliable method for assessing drivers t perception of hazards has yet been developed. For this reason several techniques for assessing perception were investigated. Non-directive, focussed and critical incident interviews, Q-sort and several variants of the repertory grid were used in an attempt to discriminate between old and young male drivers' perception of road hazards. Only the repertory grid discriminated successfully and in all variants old drivers more often used extremes of the rating scale whereas young drivers more often used mid-scale ratings. It was hypothesised that the extreme responses of the older drivers' reflected their decisiveness, which may arise from their greater experience and confidence. The tendency towards mid-scale ratings for the younger drivers was attributed to their lack of certainty in judgement. The most successful repertory grid variant, namely the fixed repertory grid, was used on four different groups of young and old drivers and this work revealed further differences between the age groups in correlational structures, element clusterings, and principal component variances. The scales (and the hazards) that were significantly correlated and clustered together, and the structure of the components produced, showed consistency over all four groups. Further work to develop the repertory grid is suggested and potential applications are discussed. These include using the fixed repertory grid, as a diagnostic instrument for detecting deficiencies in road layout which lead to accidents at blackspots, and as an aid to driver training programmes

An intelligent pedestrian device: social, psychological and other issues of feasibility

An Intelligent Pedestrian Device (IPD) is a new concept in pedestrian safety. It is defined as a microprocessor based information device which detects the approach of oncoming vehicles and informs the pedestrian whether or not it is safe to cross. IPDs could be portable or fixed to a roadside station. They could help reduce pedestrian accidents, which cost £2681 million in the UK in 1994. This study aims to assess whether the concept is socially acceptable and what the design criteria might be. A study of social acceptance involved group interviews of 5-10 participants with 84 pedestrians in five categories: adults aged 18-60, elderly aged 65+, visually restricted, parents of children aged 5-9 and children aged 10-14. The results suggest that vulnerable pedestrians are more positive about the device than the more able-bodied. Theories that may help explain this are discussed and it is concluded that, with education and marketing, the IPD could gain a degree of social acceptance. Observation of more than 900 pedestrian crossing movements at four different sites showed a range of behaviours, and that people often take risks in order to reduce delay. IPDs will require pedestrians to change some of their behaviours, especially those that are risky. Legal acceptance will demand high levels of costly product research and development, and a portable device will not be technologically feasible until well into the next century. However, the wider social benefits of IPDs may be worth the costs. An outline of design criteria for basic and sophisticated portable IPDs is given, and alternative functions are suggested. It is recommended that further work concentrate on developing software and hardware for fixed modes of IPD. It is concluded that, ultimately, acceptance will probably depend on whether Government decides that the IPD has a place in the road environment of the future

Editorial

The contributors to this special issue have undertaken research on professional doctorates that puts an emphasis on practice and practitioner research and how this can provide for and impact upon workplaces, professions, societies and the candidates themselves. They are all experienced academics in the field of professional doctorate (PD) learning providing individual examples of their researched practice and drawing on international literature and evidence. Research outputs and conferences that focus on professional and practice-based doctorates have become more evident over the last 20 years. An international biennial conference series held in Australia from 1996 to 2004 accelerated the debate; each of which produced a set of papers, many of which were developed as contributions to higher education journals. Then in 2009 the UK Council for Graduate Education and Middlesex University in the UK started an international PD conference series which has had six meetings. Many of the papers in this issue started as ideas brought to the Council for Graduate Education conference series. These also spearheaded an International Association of Practice Doctorates (IAPD). The association has an international membership and works to support academics and practitioners involved in practice based doctorate programmes, to consider policy issues, provide a source of information and to widen the debate about professional and practice-based doctorates www.professionaldoctorates.or

The role of practice in doctoral degrees. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 26:3, 257-273, ISSN 1359-6748

The role of practice in doctoral degrees connects with how `knowledge’ itself is understood and involves a wider category of knowledge creation inclusive of considerations of practice and also offers more than the application of theoretical knowledge. Concepts of knowledge and what is counted as worthwhile knowledge increasingly incorporate a trandsiciplinary approach, which is more inclusive of professional and artistic knowledge and more practice-based. Often, the aim is to achieve practice-based outcomes that make positive changes to practice. This is the case both for PhDs that have a focus on practice and for professional doctorates. A transdisciplinary lens on the world can open our eyes to multiple realities, and in this sense, academic disciplines that break down knowledge into discrete and bounded areas of knowledge are necessary, but are not always sufficient to support real world developments

The design of doctorate curricula for practising professionals

Expansion and changes in doctoral education globally have challenged universities to meet the needs of practising professionals. Values and purposes, structure and content and pedagogy of the provision are key considerations. This curriculum evaluation work investigated the views of 68 higher education staff mainly from Europe and North America involved in the development and delivery of professional doctorates on current issues in designing an appropriate curriculum for practitioners. Analysis of views from two international workshops suggested that while the social benefits of practitioner research were acknowledged, staff struggled with tensions in their higher education contexts to manage practitioner-focused elements, including the balance between theory and practice, recognition of practitioner methodologies and provision of appropriate supervision. The paper concludes that a wider understanding of the values and purpose of doctoral education within and beyond the academy is required that recognises the production of knowledge through practice, and supports ethical social action. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the participants who took part in the two international workshops for their helpful contributions, and the reviewers for their helpful comments