A Study of Safety Issues and Accidents in Secondary Education Construction Courses within the United States

Abstract

Hands-on learning is paramount to teaching concepts about construction and the built environment; however, this poses some inherent safety risks. This study analyzed a subsample of 119 teachers from a national safety study, focusing on those who taught secondary-level construction courses. The current study aimed to examine the demographics of construction teachers, accident occurrences in construction courses compared to other secondary-level technology and engineering education (TEE) courses, and safety factors and items associated with accident occurrences in construction courses. The analyses revealed that a significantly higher number of minor accidents occurred in construction courses compared to other TEE courses during a five-year span. Additionally, 20 safety factors were found to be significantly associated with increases or decreases in accident occurrences. Most notably, increases in major accident occurrences increased with marginal significance when average class sizes (occupancy load) exceeded 20 students. Construction courses were also found to have significantly more accidents involving hand and power tools compared to other TEE courses. This research contributes to the limited literature on this topic and has implications for proactively limiting potential safety hazards and resulting risks. It also provides data to inform the safety efforts of post-secondary construction programs and the construction industry.

A Call to Prioritize Safety in STEM and CTE: Addressing Overcrowded Classes and Other Critical Safety Issues

“…For example, the Virginia Administrative Code 8VAC20-120-150 on Maximum Class Size limits enrollment in specific CTE and STEM courses to 20 students [21]. School systems and administrators also need to take into account the abilities of the enrolled students [14,18,[22][23][24], types of activities to be conducted, and all potential hazards specific to each STEM and CTE course [25]. In some cases, this may warrant a student-to-teacher ratio lower than 24:1 [25,26].…”

“…School systems and administrators also need to take into account the abilities of the enrolled students [14,18,[22][23][24], types of activities to be conducted, and all potential hazards specific to each STEM and CTE course [25]. In some cases, this may warrant a student-to-teacher ratio lower than 24:1 [25,26]. For example, Love and Roy [25] discovered that enrollments surpassing 20 students per instructor in secondary level construction courses were significantly correlated with accident occurrences.…”

“…In some cases, this may warrant a student-to-teacher ratio lower than 24:1 [25,26]. For example, Love and Roy [25] discovered that enrollments surpassing 20 students per instructor in secondary level construction courses were significantly correlated with accident occurrences.…”

“…Training on safer classroom management strategies provided by school systems has also been shown to help improve safety. For example, studies have discovered that in-service educators who completed training on safer STEM and CTE classroom managements strategies provided by their school system had significantly fewer accident occurrences in their courses [19,25]. However, only 54% of STEM and CTE educators reported receiving safety training or learning about safety topics in their undergraduate coursework, only 32% received safety training when initially hired by their school system, and only 56% received safety training updates within the past five years (these updates should be occurring annually) [18].…”