Facilitator's Notes
Initial Icebreaking Activity
This link takes you to the Facilitator's Notes containing practical advice based on our experience of running pilots of this Activity Workshop.
Activity One Facilitator's Notes : Initial Icebreaking Activity
The following sheet is designed to give facilitators a series of example conversation prompts which can be quickly referred to during the workshop. The list is not designed to be not exhaustive, and after some experience with running the workshops you can always add to it with prompts that you are more comfortable with.
Initial Icebreaking Activity (PDF 36kb)
Activity One : Initial Icebreaking Activity
Aim
This initial activity presents the issue to the delegates and is designed to get the young drivers involved and interested in the workshop.
This activity is also designed to present the reason for the workshop, i.e. that young drivers are statistically a higher-risk group and that employers have sent them here because they recognise that particular risk.
The observation skills of a driver are influenced by several factors. Distractions – such as using a mobile phone or inputting directions into a sat nav – and inattention can limit the amount or quality of observations that a driver makes (for more information see RoSPA's factsheet on Driver Distraction). This means that drivers respond to hazards later and are less likely to avoid an accident due to it.
Research has shown that inexperience can result in drivers focusing their vision in a much less effective way but that observation skills improve with experience.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the activity, participants will be able to:
- Correctly list the causes of poor observation shared by the facilitators
- Explain how inexperience can contribute to poor observation of hazards
- Specify how inexperience can increase the risk of being involved in a crash
Timing
Between 5 and 10 minutes
Resources
5 hidden unexpected images
Transport for London "Awareness Test" video
Projector and projector screen
Images of road scenes, from the perspective of a driver looking through the windscreen. Initially the periphery of the scene should be blanked out so only the view directly in front of the driver can be seen.
Activity Plan
| LO Ref |
Facilitator Activity |
Participant Activity |
Assessment |
| |
Ask the delegates if they have observed anything out of place in the room. After allowing a few seconds for the delegates to look round, start pointing out the unexpected images (camels).
At this point, explain how concentrating on one thing (for example, looking for their name card when they first came into the room or paying attention to the facilitators) can make you less likely to spot other things (camels) which you are not expecting to see.
Introduce and play the "TfL Test Your Awareness" video asking the delegates to count the number of passes. |
Observation |
|
| (1) |
Summarise the activity in relation to driver workload and cognitive distraction. You can highlight that the use of hand held and hands free mobile phones can also cause a similar distraction. |
|
Content Delivered |
| (2) |
Highlight that inexperience can also have a similar effect on visual awareness, and that more experience on the road leads to greater scanning. |
|
Content Delivered |
| (3) |
In order to demonstrate the result of poor visual scanning, present some images of road scenes and point out the areas on the periphery that better observations would reveal. |
|
Content Delivered |
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