Knowledge and practices of vocational laboratory teachers in Alabama technical colleges and institutes regarding negligence

TR Number
Date
1978-06-05
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Virginia Tech
Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge level of vocational laboratory teachers in technical colleges and institutes in Alabama regarding tort liability concerning negligence. Furthermore, the study sought to determine the extent to which these same teachers observed and enforced safety practices in the conduct of their vocational laboratory classes.

The investigator examined whether relationships existed between knowledge and practice and the factors of location--urban, suburban, or rural, level of education, teaching experience, age, gender, and industrial experience.

Two hundred and ninety-seven vocational laboratory teachers in the technical colleges and institutes in Alabama participated in the study. The researcher did not make a random selection of vocational laboratory teachers, but included all vocational laboratory teachers as identified by the president/director of each institution upon the researcher's visit to the institution.

A three-part questionnaire was used in collecting the data for this study. Part A contained eight items designed to collect personal data relative to the participants. Part B was. composed of twenty items designed to assess the knowledge of the participants concerning tort liability and negligence. Part C was composed of twenty-four items designed to assess the practice which related to the participants as vocational laboratory teachers.

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), second edition (1975), was used inasmuch as the frequencies, percentages, and correlations could be computed by this one program. The Pearson productmoment coefficient of correlation was used to determine the relationship between knowledge and practice. Chi square (χ²) was used to determine the relationship between variables for both knowledge and practice items.

No significant relationship was found between knowledge and practice. There was no significant relationship between the variables of location, level of training, teaching experience, gender, age and industrial experience and the knowledge level of vocational laboratory teachers regarding the body of law concerning tort liability regarding negligence. There was no significant relationship between the variables of location, teaching experience, age and industrial experience and the safety practices and procedures used by the vocational laboratory teachers. The null hypotheses for these variables were retained.

There was. a significant relationship between the variables of gender and level. of training and the safety practices and procedures used by the vocational laboratory teachers. The null hypotheses for these two variables were, therefore, rejected.

Description
Keywords
Negligence - tort liability
Citation