English abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of college students' understanding of safety precautions in chemical laboratories and their pursuing them. The sample of the study included (54) students in the fourth year chemistry specialization in two Colleges of Education in Oman. (22) of them were males and (32) were females.
For collecting the essential data, the researcher conducted two tools. The first was a test, which measured the students' understanding level of safety precautions. It consists of (55) items distributed into (5) domains. The second tool was a checklist(Observation sheet) to measure the level of students' pursuing of safety precautions. It consists of (35) items distributed into (5) domains.
The results of the study showed the following: 1- The students' understanding level of safety precautions was lower than the educationally accepted criterion. 2- There is no significant difference in students' average performance on the safety precautions whole test and its sub-domains due to the gender. 3- There is no significant difference in students' average performance on the safety precautions whole test and its sub-domains due to the chemical achievement level with exception of the second domain, in favors to the highest achievement level). 4- The students' pursuing level of safety precautions was lower than the educationally accepted criterion. 5- There is a non significant relation (a = 0.05) between students' understanding of safety precautions and their pursuing some of them.
The researcher recommended designing an instructional unit of safety precautions in chemical subjects, and doing training programs in safety precautions in laboratory Pre-service training in the college, and reexamination in practical aspect's questions in the chemical subjects to make it containing safety precautions of alternate experiments.
The researcher also recommended conducting more studies to investigate the safety precautions in laboratories of the different instructional stages, and their pursuing them.
