Abstract:

According to the Portuguese General Directorate of Health, accidents are the fourth most common cause of death in Europe. Among these are burns, for which children are a particularly vulnerable group. In the EU, burns are the 4th leading cause of accidental death in children. In addition to consequences on morbidity and mortality, burns influence quality of life , with physical, emotional and mental consequences.The majority of burns happen at home and 90% are preventable. The school plays an important role in improving the student’s health and life quality, responding to problems in society and preparing new generations for responsible citizenship. It is up to the school to promote the adoption of safety behaviors, prevention, and adequate risk management. The SOSFire project (2019-22) was a co-funded ERASMUS + project aiming to create awareness among school children, teachers and families about the risks caused by fire, its prevention and the most important measures to put in place in case of emergency. In the early stages of the project, a questionnaire (71 respondents) and a focus group (9) showed that teachers had a low level of literacy regarding fire and burn prevention, although they considered it to be a very important issue. Additionally they felt there are few didactic materials available and they rarely cover these topics, although they acknowledge the important role the school has in education for risk and accident prevention. Therefore a training workshop with a workload of 50h was designed to empower teachers to act, make decisions, improve their skills on Education for safety and risk prevention. Professors from education and health backgrounds were involved in the design process. A pilot training took place alternating 25h synchronous online sessions (Google Classroom and Colibri Zoom platforms) with 25h of autonomous work, between March and July, where the work developed in schools was presented. 12 primary (6-10ys) teachers were recruited.This paper addresses the pilot training, its design, implementation, results and conclusions.The enrolled teachers were trained to create and implement pedagogical sequences, using the provided SOS Fire didactic materials, in their classes. In the beginning teachers analyzed and discussed the contents related to education for safety and risk prevention as well as fire and burn prevention and mitigation. This allowed to clarify and deepen concepts, and promote reflection on the usual pedagogical practices of teachers. In the end of the training, teachers shared the activities implemented in schools and reflected on the results and training impact. At school, safety education issues must be part of the school culture itself and activities must actively involve students, so that they use scientific knowledge to understand and solve everyday problems and know how to act in a responsible and informed way.The results suggest that there is a clear need to empower teacher with tools and methodologies to address the education for risk and prevention of fire and burn, teachers fully understand the importance of the issue and are highly motivated to tackle it and those are the key ingredients for promoting effective changes. Future work will have two dimensions multiplication of the training workshop and evaluation the consistency of the teacher practice over time.

Keywords:

Education for risk, accident prevention, burns.