Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the principles of development and evaluation of educational programs and teaching aids assigned for school education of children in the range of road safety. The basis for developing road safety educational programs is determining the goals resulting from analysis of road accident data, dangers, behaviour observations and development stages of specific traffic participants, and also needs/expectations of the society. It is crucial for these programs to have a modular structure, which enables the realisation of each module by different persons, or the exchange of particular module without the necessity of changing the whole program. Classes in the field of forming skills and behaviours should be organised in the real road traffic. Road safety educational programs and teaching aids should be the subject of evaluation with the use of adequate methods and research tools, such as: inquiry, questionnaire, knowledge testing, risk awareness testing, behaviour testing, behaviour observations, road accidents data in order to maintain effectiveness and minimise the time, effort and costs regarding elaboration and implementation. Questions which need to be answered at the evaluation stage depend on whether the evaluation is connected with full implementation of the program or with the program in the elaboration stage and also on the stage of its elaboration. At the early stages of programs elaboration simple evaluation on small scale is crucial, while for the implemented programs or fully elaborated ones it is inevitable to have broader evaluation at applying criteria regarding behaviours and accidents.