Investigating undergraduate chemistry teacher trainees' understanding of laboratory safety

Laboratory safety and safety rules are necessary to ensure the safety of all laboratory users. It is also to ensure that users do not harbour fears of uneventful circumstances so that they all work freely for best results. The study investigated Ghanaian first year university chemistry teacher trainees’ understanding of safety rules and symbols which go to create a safe work environment. Data was purposively collected from 111 undergraduate chemistry teacher trainees of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. The findings indicated that only 31% of trainees understood the safety rules. 45% successfully interpreted safety symbols. However, only 12% interpreted both rules and symbols correctly. 12% is too small a quota to let go without remediation. A semi-structured interview suggested that trainees hardly paid attention to warning symbols during experimental processes. These findings intimate that teachers will have to make the teaching of warning symbols and laboratory rules an introductory part of their laboratory instruction curriculum.