Effectiveness of dust-free writing board in middle and primary schools in Shanghai

Objective To investigate the influence of dust-free teaching aids on teaching procedure and teachers' health in middle and primary schools in Shanghai.Methods Survey was conducted in Xuhui,Changning,Putuo and Yangpu district.Faceto-face interviews were completed for 590 teachers from 11 schools with dust-free teaching aids and 234 teachers from 4 schools with traditional teaching aids.Effectiveness of each type of teaching resources was analyzed.Results Writing behavior of teachers was not differ in two groups of teaching resources(P>0.05).Totally,about 52.7%,51.6% and 59.7% of teachers believed that dust-free teaching aids was better in writing,cleanness and convenience than traditional teaching aids,respectively.However,34.3% of teachers thought that maintenance of dust-free teaching aids was much more complicated than traditional ones.Compared with teachers using traditional teaching aids,teachers using dust-free teaching aids reported significantly less discomfort and 30-days irritation symptoms of upper respiratory tract (X2 =212.59,187.57,P<0.05).Among three types of dust-free teaching aids,white board was better than dust-free eraser.Conclusion Dust-free teaching aids should be promoted,as they are more beneficial for teaching and had minimum adverse effect on teachers' health compared with the traditional ones.