Engineering a Grimm approach to enhancing student engagement with health and safety lectures: a new perspective on an ancient pedagogy

Abstract

In this article, we cast a critical eye over the current approach to the presentation of health and safety information and question the efficacy of conveying its relevance through isolated inductions and pictograms on lab scripts. An argument is made for the adoption of a more integrated approach to the delivery of the material to facilitate greater student engagement and provide a more coherent and repetitive reinforcement of the central messages. A strategy for revitalising student engagement is presented and relates to an exploration of storytelling as a medium through which to recognise the significance of safe practice. An innovative approach to the proactive involvement of the student body is presented that adopts the emerging literary techniques of flash fiction and harnesses eSerialisation to aid dissemination. The approach is eminently transferable across the engineering, life and physical sciences disciplines and can be implemented with few administrative or technological overheads.

Introduction

The provision of health and safety documentation is mandatory across the engineering and physical sciences disciplines, but ensuring the assimilation of the safe practice message is often problematic (BSC, 2010; HSE, 2008; HSENI, 2002). While considerable effort can be expended to present the core tenets and highlight obvious laboratory hazards, there is nevertheless a persistent concern that the message has, at best, transient purchase in the mind of the student. While those fresh to university will undoubtedly pay greater heed to directions, that old adage of “familiarity breeding contempt” can begin to take hold and there is a concern that this is a trait that persists with increasing lab experience. There is therefore a clear need to instil a mindset that not only retains the principles of the health and safety message but also actively applies them, thus creating students who, throughout the life of the degree programme, remain conscientious in relation to lab procedures and will ideally transfer that same attitude to the workplace in future years (BSC, 2010; HSENI, 2002).

Time is often a precious commodity in lab sessions and it can be argued that priority should be given to achieving the “main learning outcomes” - something of a misnomer as the prime learning outcome should be safety. Laboratories are effectively the playground where students are given the opportunity to put into practice the concepts that have been delivered in the lecture course - this should also include safe practice and hazard identification. However, although programme handbooks and laboratory manuals are frequently awash with safety information (McDonald et al., 2009; Phillips et al., 1999), there is always a suspicion that what is clear on the page may slip the mind of the student when preparing for their class. Moreover, while there will inevitably be specific cautions delivered by the demonstrator as to the presence of particular hazards, these are seldom retained beyond the class in which they were received. There is thus a danger of creating a culture in which the student is reliant on being informed of hazards rather than being proactive in their identification and resolution. The great fear is that this is latterly embodied in their work experience.

It can be argued that the final year research projects are the ideal time to reinforce the health and safety message, as it is at this stage that the students embrace a degree of independence in their professional development. However, in many instances the student will be following a well-beaten path and thus (beyond paying lip service to the completion of COSHH forms) is still within the confines of what will be considered, as a consequence of familiarity, a “safe” environment.

The crucial question is how to achieve what would effectively be a radical change in thinking, with prioritisation of the safety ethos within the student’s mind being capable of integration within the existing curricula and scheduling patterns. The aim of this article is to present a case for the rediscovery and redeployment of narrative to engage students and develop a better appreciation and assimilation of safety information - in other words moving beyond the realm of superficial knowledge into that of tacit knowledge (Leggett and Finlay, 2001). The issues arising from a recent review of safety among undergraduate engineers at Ulster (based on a cohort of 254 first year students) are critically appraised. Presented is a critical overview of how narrative can be readily exploited as a reinforcement strategy within an engineering/physical sciences faculty comprising a student populace more used to dealing with facts, figures and formulae.

Health and safety assimilation: historical pedagogy

Health and safety has always been of prime concern since the very first expeditions of hunter gatherers into the savannah. The hazards may be different and more numerous now, as our understanding of the world has increased, but there has always been a need to convey the information in such a way that it is effectively retained and applied. In achieving the latter we face the same issues as our ancestors and, although technology has evolved, the core methodology has changed little. Rather than painting icons on cave walls we now provide leaflets and programme booklets emblazoned with icons cautioning against impending danger (HSE, 2008; Lehto, 1998; McDonald et al., 2009). There is, however, a missing component in our current pedagogy: stories and the exploitation of narrative techniques.

Storytelling was an important, if not vital, stage in our development, representing the logical progression from the cave painting and acting as the springboard through which societal norms were introduced to the young (Anderson, 2000; Moon, 2010). This oral tradition arguably represented the very first safety lecture series where tales would be told to inform and aid the survival of the community. These methods are still practiced in present day aboriginal societies where the legacy is passed from one generation to the next. There are still faint resonances of this approach in modern societies where fairytales and fables are recounted as bedtime stories. While their present day form is almost invariably used to entertain, this is a largely superficial deployment of a pedagogical vehicle whose historical purpose was predominantly to inform and influence. Engagement with the central narrative was exploited as an emotional hook through which to embed the central message within the mind of the child and thus enhance retention (Anderson, 2000). It is easy to recall the stories of our youth. Although the exact details may have been lost to an ageing memory, the nuances and core message contained within them are liable to be as clear as when they were first heard (Moon, 2010; Gillard, 1996). Moreover, we are proposing the use of narrative as an elicitation tool and delivery device for non-quantitative risk values - research on other (non-valuation) contexts suggests that information presented in narrative form improves ability to read about a subject, consider its content and then link that content to a specific judgement (Finucane and Satterfield, 2005). Therein lies the crux of our argument for the use of storytelling as a means of enhancing present day health and safety awareness.

In recent years a substantial knowledge base on the use of emotional engagement has arisen and the key factors that mediate such processes have long been recognised. A central theme in the fable approach is the empathic melding of the reader with the experience of the central character in such a way that the trials and tribulations are shared. It can be a form of personal, mental role play in which experiential learning is indirectly achieved and is critical to the present argument as it represents the deep learning of a message without encountering the physical risk (Moon, 2010). Health and safety is (in contrast to academic disciplines) the storyteller’s ideal realm in that it contains all of the key ingredients (principally the presence of danger) necessary for the construction of stories that can capture the interest of the reader (Moon, 2010, Diekhof et al., 2011; Shank, 2006). The variety of storyline is dependent only on the imagination of the teller and is capable of being moulded in an inexhaustible number of ways that can serve to emphasise specifics or generalities and can be tailored to any context. Rather than presenting isolated data or facts, it offers a means of delivering the theme via a holistic and reflective approach that lends itself more to being embedded within deep memory (Schaffer, 1989; Roebers and Schneider, 2005). There is an additional advantage in that it can tap into the imagination in a way in which conventional lecture material often fails and facilitates learning of the bigger picture (or, in our case, the ethos/process) rather than imparting isolated facts about health and safety doctrine (Moon, 2010, Diekhof et al., 2011; Shank, 2006).

Storytelling - a professional practice?

There is little doubt as to the versatility of the storytelling approach, as it provides the flexibility and creative opportunity to build in cultural references and to emphasise appropriate responses to risk information (Golding et al., 1992), but the crucial question is how to deliver it effectively. Can it be readily adopted across different faculties and what degree of expertise is needed for its implementation? The components of storytelling rest upon the empirically tested foundations of educational psychology (Moon 2010), but ultimately their collation, integration and expression is more art than science and it is clear that the best stories require the addition of what seems to be an almost intangible creative element. This could at first glance appear to relegate the strategy to those with a literary background who have nurtured a talent for writing, but while the possession of the latter is certainly advantageous, its absence is not a reason for exclusion.

There is an almost innate human perception of what a story is and what it should contain (beginning, middle and end; a challenge and, ideally, a resolution) and, while the performance may be variable, everyone is capable of delivering it (Moon, 2010; Gillard, 1996). Cases where narrative has been used (to varying degrees) include public understanding of science (Leggett and Finlay, 2001); facilitating the biotechnology debate (Finucane and Satterfield, 2005); within a policy judgement context (Satterfield et al., 2000) and through the medium of film as an alternative laboratory exercise (Pitt and Robinson, 2003). In medical practice, storytelling has long been a critical component employed by students and staff, irrespective of educational or creative background, to share experiences and develop professional competencies (Sakalya, 2002). The discussion and review of case histories, consultations and consideration of clinical scenarios are a matter of routine professional development and each embodies a degree of storytelling. It is easy to envisage how a similar format could, in principle, be applied equally well to health and safety instruction and it could be anticipated that this would foster a more proactive engagement with the routine application of safe practice policies and procedures (BSC, 2010). This would be relatively easy to implement within the workplace setting, but its application with an undergraduate cohort is more problematic as they do not have the range of direct experience with which to share and critically appraise. It is important to note that the process of storytelling need not be restricted to the lecturer. It must also be appreciated that not all lecturers will feel at ease delivering a story and students can be very adept at spotting signs of discomfort and lack of confidence in their teachers. While the latter may come with practice, a quicker way around this is to be more inclusive and encourage students to get involved in the creative process, something which can often bring unexpected insight and clarity to the narrative as a whole. In fact, storytelling is an ideal forum for peer learning as the students act as co-creators. There is, of course, an assumption that the material being considered is based solely on factual events. Need this be the case?

Problem based learning and nanofiction

Fiction is fundamental to teaching and is used by every lecturer at some point (whether they realise it or not). This is most clearly evidenced by the construction of context to support the presentation of “what-if” scenarios and tutorial/exam questions. These can be considered variants of nanofictioni, but in this case serving as self-contained stories (albeit of limited narrative quality) that are employed to highlight particular aspects of a learning outcome, and a similar approach could easily be taken by the lecturer to introduce health and safety concepts. This is akin to problem based learning strategies and goes some way to facilitating engagement, but there is a missing component which is critical to the full exploitation of the approach advocated here. The advantage of using factual material is that there is often a personalised nuance to the retelling of a story where there is an emotional/empathic response (Moon, 2010). This can be difficult to convey in the limited text often employed to scene-set a problem. The story could be expanded to support character development such that each problem becomes the equivalent of a short story: a context is set and characters either succumb to a particular hazard or find an appropriate resolution - these are the essential components that constitute the narrative backbones of countless fables. In our case, the scenarios are more mundane than their historical predecessors, but the dangers are nonetheless equally valid. There are merits to this, beyond the attempt at engagement, in that it develops the ability of the student to critically extract and appraise the principal issues from a complex situation in which there is an abundance of information - key components of hazard identification. Not only that, it also facilitates task engagement and employs emotion to add meaning to otherwise abstract information by concretising information through the use of imagery and anecdote (Finucane and Satterfield, 2005).

There are, however, numerous drawbacks to this approach. Prime among these is the fact that it undoubtedly places a substantial burden on the lecturer to produce the supporting material as each story would effectively serve to highlight one single problem. The extrapolation of the approach to cover the full gamut of health and safety issues would clearly place considerable (if not impractical) demands on the time of the lecturer involved. The second issue relates to the case where the material is presented as a one-off tutorial assignment. While emotional engagement may be more likely, reinforcement of the message is absent. Our recollection of fairytales and fables arises as a consequence of both criteria being met in childhood (Anderson, 2000; Moon, 2010). There are a number of conspiring factors here: the commonality of themes within fables and our engagement with the story actually driving the request to hear it again, thus increasing the impregnation of the message within deep memory. It is of course unlikely that the student cohort would want to hear the health and safety message night after night, but there is a need for periodic refreshing/repetition of the story or of a hook that stimulates recall of the initial reading.

Figure 1 Typical example of a cartoon illustration used to initiate directed learning within the microfiction tutorial

An innovative solution - turning the tables

One solution that was pursued at Ulster was to reverse the roles and have the students themselves construct the story (Gillard, 1996). The central problem/hazard (i.e. trip, electrical shock, manual handling accident etc.) was set but, in order to engage the students, a cartoon containing embedded health and safety messages was presented. The students were then required to create the fictional account of a potential scenario. Experience has told us that this is a much more effective way of eliciting enthusiasm towards the assignment/task than merely presenting the more conventional essay question format (Mayer et al., 1990; Mayer et al., 1996). A typical example is shown in Figure 1. This provides a number of advantages:

1. In setting the scene the students are required to consider the likely cases where such hazards can arise and the risks involved. This alone provides an important learning outcome as it involves the anticipation of the problem and thus students are more able to recognise the situation in the real environment.

2. In supporting character development they are seeking emotional engagement, but equally important is the reflective learning associated with consideration of the implications of the hazard failing to be identified and resolved.

Preliminary evaluation of strategy

A preliminary study was conducted and the effectiveness of the approach assessed quantitatively through the number of students participating in the caption competitions (determined by read email receipts and actual responses received) and qualitatively on the basis of the students’ interaction and their response to the captions. The engagement was assessed through a feedback questionnaire and covered their reaction to it, how long it took and whether they were sufficiently interested to keep looking at the emailed cartoons. The students were given a specific word file with which to submit their entry and which encouraged them to identify the core health and safety message being presented and embed it within their reply. They were also asked in a supplementary question to identify the secondary or additional safety messages within the given scenario. The sample audience comprised mechanical engineering, sports technology and biomedical engineering students (total N = 270). This covered both undergraduate (N = 244) and postgraduate cohorts (N = 26).

Empowering the students to create the story frees up the time of the lecturer and further enhances the experience of the student by encouraging them to be proactive in the story process rather than relying on the passivity of reading. Integration within conventional degree curricula can be straightforward - most will contain a module whose remit is to enhance the transferable skills of the student and, at some point, will seek to develop their communication skills through the setting of essay type assignments or oral presentations. In practice, it was found that a symbiotic relationship between the delivery of the latter with the health and safety story approach was easily developed with minimal administrative burden to the lecturing staff and brought greater relevance to the process whilst at the same time reinforcing the safety message. The delivery of the story through the oral presentation and the subsequent consideration of the hazard/message also provide an ideal opportunity for stimulating discussion and reflective learning (Moon, 2010). In doing so, it is mimicking the focus group deliberations found in medical practice (Sakalya, 2002).

The number of read return replies and entries to the caption competition were then assessed. In general, the read return was 71% (based on a successful delivery notice of N = 270). Engagement of the students with the email message is clearly promising and can be attributed to the competitive element, the humour and the fact that the work required to participate in the challenge is not too onerous. Evaluation of the approach was carried out qualitatively through a follow up questionnaire designed to extract feedback on attitudes towards the mail shot, desire/ability to participate and the perceived benefits to be accrued from it. The results are summarised in Figure 2. It was anticipated that there would inevitably be entries which bore no relevance to the underlying health and safety messages. As such the nature of the captions was also analysed in terms of examining the infiltration of health and safety messages into the entry text - the identification of the hazard being pivotal. It can be seen from Figure 2 that over 80% of the returns made a direct attempt to identify the health and safety message. An important aspect of the approach is the fact that the students appear to cast a much more critical eye over the scenario presented to them whilst searching for the witty caption. This is highlighted in Figure 2 where the additional messages held within the cartoon depicted in Figure 1 are listed along with their frequency. Less than 10% of the cohort questioned failed to examine and report on any additional considerations. The cartoon, combined with the need to produce a “quality” response, undoubtedly increased the critical examination of the scenario.

Assessing the long term assimilation of the health and safety message is beyond the scope of the present study and would be the subject of follow-up investigations, but it is clear that eSerialisation is a simple way to reinforce the core message which actively engages the student imagination (Yengin et al., 2010).

Flash fiction tutorials

The story process can also be achieved through the adoption and literal implementation of the flash fiction approach in a single onehour tutorial where the student number is typically about 20. The term “flash fiction” is normally used to denote an extreme version of the short story in which there is a restrictive word limit and is normally delimited into nanofiction (55 or 69 words) or microfiction (typically less than 1000 words). Rather than have the students labour over a traditional essay, it is possible to set the assignment such that the essay (or script for the cartoon) is completed, at least in draft form, within the hour and contains the core elements of the story in the 1000 word range. This embodies true flash fiction, with both a time and word constraint. Its implementation can again complement transferable skill objectives where the partnering of students to create a single work hones the teamwork component. The context is brought into focus and can be refined for the follow up presentation in later weeks. Intelligent partnering of the students is also important in order to offset the individual exposure that could otherwise be encountered in presenting what is essentially a creative work encompassing a high degree of personal expression (Moon, 2010; Gillard, 1996).

Repetitive reinforcement: eSerialisation

It is clear how the story approach could easily be incorporated into conventional curricula and would be complementary to existing health and safety measures, but it still runs the risk of being an isolated event. It is possible, however, to greatly enhance the retention of the messages through the simple manipulation of the assignment criteria. In giving a range of possible hazards/scenarios, a diverse catalogue of stories can be obtained which could easily supplement the material traditionally covered in the lab induction lectures. With active and integrated learning brought to the fore, students are able to manipulate, apply and evaluate ideas (just like a storyteller). Such a learning process can be applied not only in experiential situations, but also in traditional disciplinary courses and larger class settings. Studies indicate that students are more likely to achieve intended outcomes and are more satisfied with their education when they are engaged in these kind of learning methods (i.e. integrated, experiential and active learning). Furthermore, students who are actively involved in their own learning make better connections, both with past learning and between new concepts. There is also an increase in student motivation and class participation. The task in question also ticks all of the boxes in relation to Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains (Crawley et al., 2007). Moreover, it is by taking the health and safety process and placing it in a new and unlikely context that better retention can be ensured (HSE Report, 2009).

Figure 2 Feedback summary

Marking and presentation would follow normal pedagogy, but an additional incentive could be introduced whereby the best work would be showcased (preserving individual student anonymity) across the faculty. Rather than a single release of a pdf containing the essay highlights, a better approach is to have a drip feed of individual essays over the year (Watanabe et al.,2001; Schaffer, 1989). Email is increasingly used as the principal form of communication between faculty and student and is an ideal route through which to disseminate the essays (Chen et al.,2010; Yengin et al., 2010). In contrast to a blog, email is continually accessed by the student base and thus more liable to be read. The eSerialisation of the work counters the single event issue of the original learning outcome and provides an important memory refresher. However, the delivery of the email does not necessarily mean that it will be read - we are all adept at deleting mail perceived to be spam and of no interest to us. Nonetheless, there is a safeguard in the present case in that it exploits the all too human traits of curiosity and competitiveness - it is, after all, the natural tendency of the student to see if the essay is theirs or, if not, to see why that particular one was chosen. The adoption of the microfiction format also provides a concise text which is easily skimmed, but which simultaneously has the capacity to refresh and reinforce the core messages. The drip feed of such email presents no additional administrative overhead to the lecturer, yet the advantages are clearly manifold (Chen et al., 2010; Yengin et al., 2010).

Conclusions

Storytelling was historically the principal method of disseminating health and safety messages and is embodied in the subtext of tales by Aesop and the Grimm brothers, recounted through countless generations. In recent times, the narrative that once held our attention has been significantly eroded and replaced with a distillate of icons and pictogram representations of the hazards. The strategies outlined above demonstrate a versatile method through which to counter the apathy that can pervade the student response to health and safety messages. The case study highlights how it can be delivered in a holistic manner that is complementary to existing module components and whose integration into the curricula is seamless, with minimal administrative overhead. Most importantly, it provides an inherently transferable method for engagement and reinforcement of the message that contrasts markedly with the traditional delivery of such material. It should therefore enable a greater retention of the key tenets of safe practice, well beyond the initial induction lectures, and hopefully find its way into the workplace in later years.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the EPSRC for financial support.

Notes

1 Very short stories, also called flash fiction or microfiction. Nanofiction is often limited to 55 words in length, not including the title, which is limited to seven words. Believe it or not, it is possible to have a complete story containing conflict and resolution, even a surprise ending, despite the word limit - see http://everything2.com/title/nanofiction