Cognitive Design of Safety Supervision Instruction

Traditional education programs often present work aspects such as safety, quality and schedule as separate entities. Cognitive models of expert field managers are capable of integrating these aspects in terms of the information used in work activities. This paper presents a design of safety supervision instruction based on these models. Such instructional design makes use of specific information contained in the models that is not available through traditional instruction. To develop this approach, the knowledge content of the models is compared to standard safety documentation in order to identify the different facts and strategies that they posit for safety supervision practice. Then, these differential elements are used throughout the instructional design process to create programs and information tools for construction management education. In this way, it is possible to create an instructional environment in which to observe the impact of experts' knowledge on learners' cognitive strategies and use of information.