Developing Practitioner Skills in Construction Health and Safety Management: An Integrated Teaching and Learning Approach

Abstract

The Construction (Design and Management) – (CDM) Regulations of 1994 and their subsequent revisions have played an important role in improving construction health and safety management. However, the awareness of corresponding responsibilities and the intuitive management of relevant knowledge continue to pose the greatest challenges to the duty holders in terms of implementing the Regulations. Within the context of established learning styles and teaching techniques, an integrated problem-based and collaborative learning approach is being adopted in the delivery of a series of special construction health and safety short courses for construction professionals. The programmes are attended by an average of ten participants with varied construction related backgrounds on each of the iterations. Starting from the theoretical framework of the Regulation requirements, the approach evolves into contextualised problem solving in respect of each of the stages of the construction process. Well defined pre-selected problem solving tasks and background related problem solving tasks are collectively applied to facilitate efficient and effective knowledge transfer and acquisition. A collaborative learning approach was finally applied to elicit peer knowledge thereby enriching participants’ individual knowledge base of the generic issues. Participant feedback suggests that the programmes have been successful in achieving their main aim of enabling awareness and improving the health and safety knowledge and management skills of the practitioners. Further work is envisaged in extensively reviewing other learning approaches and developing the more reasonable integrated approach to reflect changes in relevant legislation and the diversified experience of the practitioners who attend the programme.