Section 2: Teaching to recognize Uncertainty - Page
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Procedure to Develop Judgment of the Detection of Traffic
Trains people to be able to recognize Situations of Uncertainty
A checklist is available for this procedure.
Now that your students can figure out the probable width of unfamiliar streets and they have an intuitive understanding of their crossing time for streets of various widths, they are ready to learn to recognize Situations of Uncertainty.
The goal is for your students to be able to observe traffic each time they prepare to cross, and notice how much warning they have of approaching vehicles.
Based on that observation, they should be able to recognize if there is (or could be) a Situation of Uncertainty.
One way to teach them this skill is to use the Procedure to Develop Judgment of the Detection of Traffic, which is described below.
With this procedure,
- you ask students to observe the traffic in different situations and judge whether or not they are (or could be) in a Situation of Uncertainty;
- you then do a thorough assessment of the situation to provide students with feedback about their judgment; and
- you repeat this until they consistently judge situations accurately.
PROCEDURE:
Step 1: Take students to a crossing situation and have them determine crossing time
Step 2: Students judge (assess) the situation
Have the students observe the traffic and make their best judgment as to whether:
- it is a Situation of Confidence (they can hear/(see) the traffic with plenty of warning to know when it is clear enough to cross) or
- it is a Situation of Uncertainty (vehicles appear and arrive without enough warning) or
- it is borderline (there could be a Situation of Uncertainty but the student can't be sure without extensive observation).
Allow the students as much time as they need to observe and listen and make their judgment.
Typically they can make an educated guess after a few minutes of listening/(watching), assuming there is enough traffic mixed with periods of quiet.
You might prompt them with questions such as:
"It was quiet when you heard that car. If you had started to cross just before you heard/(saw) it -- that is, when it was still quiet / (before you saw anything coming) -- would you have finished your crossing before it passed?
Or would that driver have had to slow down to avoid hitting you?
Ask yourself that question as you continue to listen to / (watch) the approaching traffic from both directions.
When you think you've observed enough, tell me whether or not you think it's possible to hear/(see) the vehicles from both directions before they are too close.
And if you think it is borderline -- you can't be sure without extensive observations -- let me know."
Students who rely on their hearing can assess noisy situations as long as the noise level remains steady throughout the procedure.
The same is true of students who rely on their vision -- they can assess situations where their vision is temporarily limited (for example with poor lighting conditions or something blocking their view) as long as those conditions do not fluctuate throughout the procedure.
Step 3: Instructor assesses the situation with the student
Do a thorough assessment of the situation by using the Timing Method for Assessing the Detection of Vehicles (TMAD, which is explained on the next page).
A thorough assessment with the TMAD usually takes 30-45 minutes.
Remember that the conditions (masking sounds, lighting conditions, etc.) during the assessment must remain the same as they were when the student judged the situation.
If a student judges a situation but then the conditions change before you complete the assessment, start over again and ask the student to judge another situation and then use the TMAD to test that judgment.
For example if an air conditioner starts making noise after the student judged a quiet situation, you could either find another intersection to judge and assess or, if it seems that the noise will remain steady, stay where you are and use the new situation (ask the student to judge whether he can hear well enough with the steady noise from the air conditioner, and then assess the situation with the TMAD and see if his judgment was correct).
Step 4: Students get feedback about accuracy of their judgment / assessment
Based on the results of the assessment with the TMAD, provide students with feedback about their initial judgment of the situation.
If their judgment was wrong, the feedback will help them learn to do better next time.
You might also discuss how they can improve their judgment, such as pointing out what they should have noticed in their observations to assess the situation.
Step 5: Repeat!
Continue to present the students with different situations for them to judge, then assess the situations with the TMAD to let the students know if their judgment was correct or not.
** To ensure that students can recognize Situations of Uncertainty, it is important that they successfully judge
at least one situation in which they
- CAN hear/(see) the traffic well enough to know it's clear to cross when quiet/(when they can't see any vehicles),
and at least one situation where they
- CAN NOT hear/(see) the traffic well enough (they are in a Situation of Uncertainty).
To test a variety of conditions, you can go to various intersections, or vary the conditions at one intersection (for example, add a steady masking sound, or set up a barrier to block the sound or the view).