Remember when you were in school, maybe in math class and
you felt the seat get so uncomfortable on your behind? Remember when the words
that the teacher would say began to run together and you did not hear another
word that was said. This is just how we
had to learn it, some old guy up front in his shirt and tie spitting out the
rules of math and testing us on them later. How many of us had trouble learning because we
were so board it wasn’t funny. I think
many of us would agree we had issues just like this that made learning hard, we
just didn’t know it then.
If you
go to the local secondary school in your area today and stop by a math class
you’re going to see some wired stuff.
You may find kids sitting in the floor, playing games, laughing and
having fun. The next thing you may see
is the teacher down in the floor with them or playing the game and wearing
jeans. In addition to these wired things you will find that these kids are
scoring the same or better on the math tests that we did. Why has this
happened? Because someone realized a long time ago that learning can be fun and
fresh, and by keeping it that way people learn more.
I would
submit to you that today’s firefighter’s have the same sore rear-ends that we
had in math class. The problem is we
continue to do the same old thing day in and day out with no change. We need to freshen up our training to make it
more enjoyable. Your next question is
how can this be done without great expense? The answer is simple understand the
problem and involve your firefighters in the solutions. If you go back to the basic principles of
adult education two facts are well established. First, adults learn best when
they can relate topic to experience.
Second, adults learn more when allowed to identify areas in which they
need improvement.
During informal discussions with firefighters boredom seems
to be a biggest reason they do not get anything from their training. For example, how often does training staff
use the same old NFPA 1410 drill of the live burn, roll in and establish a
water supply, put out the fire and roll it up.
The same scenarios done the same way every time serves to make
firefighters complacent. I would bet
that if you stop and think about this type of drill in your area you would
agree that often times it even involves the same scenarios and the same individuals
preforming the same duties. These types
of drills can lead to boredom and inattention by our firefighters.
How do we prevent this type of
training? How do we keep our men and women interested and hungry to train and
learn? Simple- Keep it fresh! Take that multi-company drill that we do over and
over and break it down by task. Simple techniques like job task analysis can be
used to identify specific areas where the firefighter can improve. Take the
time to evaluate the individual tasks used by firefighters to work a problem on
the training ground. As you observe the
evolution identify which tasks are poorly preformed and plan training around
those tasks. Another method can be a simple handout asking
staff to identify areas in which they feel a weakness related to fire ground
operations, rescue operations and even specialty areas such as hazardous
materials. Challenge yourself day in and
day out to come up with innovative ways to train for your department; this
includes trainers, officers and firefighters all. Talk to your neighbors see
what they are doing, find out what is working for other and adapt it to your
use. Be willing to exchange ideas with
those same departments on a regular basis. But most important involve your
people in the planning process.
By involving your personnel in the
identification of their needs you can build stronger training programs with
better outcomes.
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