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

Tyler S. Love () and Kenneth R. Roy
Additional contact information
Tyler S. Love: Department of the Built Environment, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Baltimore, MD 21230, USA
Kenneth R. Roy: Department of Environmental Health & Safety, Glastonbury Public Schools, Glastonbury, CT 06033, USA

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-26

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.

Keywords: construction education; built environment; occupational safety and health; risk management; overcrowding; safety training; career and technical education; technology and engineering education; teacher preparation; alternative certification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11028/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11028/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11028-:d:1193952

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().