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CHILDHOOD AGRICULTURAL INJURY PREVENTION INITIATIVE

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Youth Teaching Youth: Are TASK Teens Ready to Teach

Project Title: Youth Teaching youth: Are TASK Teens Ready to Teach

Principal Investigator: Robert Edward Petrea, Ph.D.

Affiliation: University of Illinois

City & State: Urbana, Illinois

Grant Number: 1 R01 CCR514378-01

Start & End Dates: 09/30/97 – 09/29/00

Abstract:

As the popularity of youth teaching safety to other youth continues to rise, little research is available to document the effectiveness of using this strategy. This lack of research applies to both the youth presenting the information and to the youth receiving the information. The literature that is available applies mostly to the adolescent health education, prevention, and promotion field. The long-term goal of this project is to add health to younger youth. The significance of this study rises as it provides the first formal, overall evaluations of prominent model, the Illinois Easter Seal Society’s TASK – Teaching Agricultural Safety to Kids program. This initiative not only trains youth to teach youth but also provides those youth with a standardized curriculum on which to base those presentations.

The specific objectives of the evaluation of the TASK program are:

  1. To evaluate the historical and ongoing training process used by the TASK program.
  2. To observe and appraise the application of TASK training by TASK presenters in elementary classes.
  3. To describe the beliefs, attitudes, and motivations of FFA members toward their TASK experience.
  4. To interpret the findings of Objectives 1, 2, & 3 to provide information for improving TASK.
  5. To assess the impact of TASK presentations on the agricultural knowledge and comprehension of younger, elementary age students.
  6. To review the TASK supplied curriculum materials for needed content, format, and technical improvements.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used. Quantitative techniques will include descriptive statistics and inferential statistics based on a quasi-experiment design. Qualitative techniques will include content analysis, observations, interviews, and participant perceptions.