An action research on improving traffic safety skills of primary school 4th grade students: The case of İzmir province

Developing transportation and communication technologies in the globalizing world day by day, while facilitating the lives of the people of the 21st century, on the other hand, they cause some problems. One of the problems encountered is a traffic security problem that cannot controlled, occurring mostly in developing countries. In this study; It is aimed to increase the traffic safety competencies of the students with the implementation of the action plan prepared to address the main problems and deficiencies and to minimize these deficiencies by making a general evaluation of the education given with the traffic safety course in primary schools in Turkey. This research was designed in the action research model, which is one of the qualitative research methods, and the participants were identified as 16 (11 boys and 5 girls) 4th grade students studying in a private primary school subject to the Directorate of National Education in Buca district of İzmir province. The data was acquired through a written attendance test, a student interview form, and a researcher observation form of open-ended questions prepared by the researcher to measure students' traffic safety competencies. The analysis of the data in the research was analyzed using quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. While, The analysis of Quantitative data was conducted using the SPSS 25 program and analyzed on the basis of frequency, percentage, Shapiro Wilk test and paired group T-test techniques. For the analysis of qualitative data, the descriptive analysis methodology was used. In view of the results obtained with students following the implementation of the 7-week action plan, there has been a significant increase in the traffic safety skills of students. In addition, according to the results of the student interview and the research findings concluded that the actions made a positive contribution to their road safety competencies. Keywords: Traffic, road safety training, action search, primary school