By CHRISTOPHER FLATLEY
I have presented a classroom session on engine company operations at FDIC for several years now with my longtime friend and mentor Jerry Knapp. After each presentation, Jerry and I go back to the speaker room and read every evaluation. If you ever filled one out, yeswe read every one. We read them not just for the good and bad but also for who is saying what.
The demographic piece that describes you as the evaluator is of particular interest. The number of service years, rank, department position and department type, as well as your comments say a lot about how we did as presenters. Each year we are consistently amazed at the responses.
This is not a scientific analysis, but it is more than a casual observation. Jerry and I have found that many of our harshest critics are students with five years of service or young lieutenants from small companies or departments. More favorable reviews come from training chiefs in larger departments with 20 or more years of service. The young firefighters say the presentation was just more of the same, while the older ones say it was right on the mark. I would hate to think that the young guys have the arrogance to think they know it all, so why the discrepancy?
When we first noticed this trend, we were not sure my observations were correct. After reading Captain Steve Marsar’s article, “Understanding the Learning Curve: An Officer’s Guide to Successful Drills” (Fire Engineering, July 2007), I felt that our discussion had merit. Marsar makes several good points about reaching your people.
Jerry and I have theorized that the disconnect between the junior and senior firefighters can be attributed to the learning curve. The five-year guys have probably heard the engine company how-to’s since they began their careers. Their “more of the same” feelings may exist because they have reached the topic’s saturation point. The chiefs may have already realized the critical engine company skills’ value and the need for a back-to-basics approach.
With the number of fires down nationwide and the myriad of other skills in which you must be proficient, engine company skills have been pushed farther down on the list. Many firefighters are injured or killed because of problems with “putting the wet stuff on the red stuff”; this may be an oversimplification, but it does make the point. That doesn’t mean either opinion is wrong or should be discounted. As a presenter, you must be sensitive and develop training to target both groups.
It is suggested that you need three hours of preparation for every hour of instruction. Dedicate some of that time to learning your audience so that you can customize the presentation. Isn’t that what you must do with the training programs in your own department?
While conducting a company drill on reading smoke, I showed a video by Dave Dodson. To personalize the training, I suggested that members look at the smoke to see if they had seen the types of smoke captured in the video at any fire they had seen. As I observed the members, I realized that they had not been to many fires. The fires they did respond to most likely kept their attention away from reading the smoke, focusing instead on their assignments. It was obvious that that approach would only work with more senior members.
So how can you overcome the learning curve? Develop a program where everyone can take something away. For the five-year guys, start them at the next level so they are not getting the same information. For them, the training must be a challenge; make them think a little “outside the box.”
For the 20-year guys, you may have to work a little harder to find information they don’t already know. Remind them of something they may have forgotten or at least have not done in a while. Ask them, “Have I left anything out that you would like to add?” Let them tell a war story; war stories not only reinforce the lesson but also make it more credible. Firefighters want to know that what you tell them works in the real world and not just in the training academy.
When developing the lesson plan, seek out both groups of people and ask their advice. From their input, you can give them what they want to hear and also what they need to hear. Put yourself in their shoes. Is this program something you can sit through? Is the program something that you must sit through and just endure, or do you learn something from it?
There have been many studies on how people learn. Some learn better by listening, some learn by seeing, and others learn by doing. If the program is strictly classroom lecture, you must keep people’s attention; this is where a presenter’s skills are key. As a presenter, you must have energy, especially if you are lecturing after the students have eaten.
If PowerPoint is the presentation medium, use it to enhance instruction, not substitute for it. Know the program; use the slides only to stay on track and ensure a consistent presentation. Also, do not read the slidesthis distracts from the presentation, and the program becomes nothing more than “story time.” I feel that if you are reading me slides, just give me the book, and I will read it at home. I didn’t need to come to your class. I want you to give me more than what is on the slide. Speak from your experience. Don’t try to dazzle me with your brilliance or baffle me with your rhetoric.
Overcoming the learning curve can be difficult, but it is not impossible. Find the balance for your group of students. Anyone who has crammed for an exam knows that cramming is a short-term solution. Repetition is the key to retaining long-term knowledge. For hands-on skills, you must repeat them until they become habit. Knot tying is an acquired skill that must be practiced. Without practice, your skills will wane. Even though the skills must be repeated, don’t present them in the same way every time. Some students will respond to the new teaching method or a different approach.
Another option is to have someone else present. Often, just having another person put the message in his own words will help a student to “get it.” This is where “team teaching” is effective. It is effective to have two presenters to instruct and answer questions. This is noticeable when presenting very technical or complex issues to the group for the first time.
You may have noticed that I have not discussed how people learn. I have addressed the gap, the learning process synapses, as I see it. Maybe the way to address the learning curve is to figure out not how the students will learn but how to impress on them how important it is and let them figure it out for themselves.
Instructors must stop looking for teaching methods that make people feel warm and fuzzy and look to teach them how to stay alive. My method of teaching has always been to present “straight from the street.” Now that may not be as warm and fuzzy as back to basics, but does it mean the same thing using some attitude? Times have changed, but firefighters are still getting killed doing what they do every day. When do we look past warm and fuzzy and begin to look more closely at the cold, hard facts?
North Carolina Firefighter Wayne Sutherland shared with me a bit of advice his father had given him: “It is what you learn after you think you know everything that really matters.” When I heard it, it sounded like not only a profound fire service lesson but also a darn good life lesson.
So how do you overcome that learning curve? You need to hit more points on that curve. Reach your students on an intellectual level as well as an emotional one. Often, the significant emotional event that triggers real learning has come at a high price, sometimes the price of a firefighter’s life. Before that happens, make the students understand the benefits and value of the training. Make it personal.
The Fire Instructor’s “Top 10 List”
What makes the difference between a good fire service instructor and an outstanding one? Here is the “Top 10 List” of qualities that can make a good fire service instructor great.
10 Drill when they will get something out of it. If members are tired and wet after a fire, their attention levels will be at their lowest. Schedule drills when guys are fresh and rested, such as the beginning of the tour instead of the end. Tired, sleep-deprived, and inattentive firefighters probably won’t respond well. Tailboard after-action reviews are great; but if the members have just taken a beating, it may be best to review at the fire scene in the morning. This doesn’t mean that if it’s 4 a.m. and you are on an EMS run or a water leak check and notice an oddity in a floor layout or an apartment numbering system you can’t point it out and discuss it. It is harder to discuss it in the morning if they haven’t seen it firsthand.
9 Choose meaningful topics. Not all drill subjects are exciting, but they must be relevant to your response area; if they are not, members will tune you out. For example, drilling on cutting vent holes in a peaked-roof private dwelling in midtown Manhattan may not interest high-rise firefighters. If you feel that it is an important skill to know, work the topic into a discussion on ventilation or power saw use.
8 Make sure everyone benefits. You must believe everyone can learn something new every day. Handing out printed material is effective (if they read it!). Providing a handout to everyone will give members with weak skills and fragile egos an opportunity to privately review. Good handouts can cover a wider range of experience levels and can reinforce the lesson. They provide consistent answers to questions when the members are having “training conversations” and do not leave the answer up to what an individual thinks is correct.
7 Get everyone involved in the discussion. You may have a mixed audience, such as probies with senior members and probably a few in between, so speak to them all and let them all express an opinion. The probies will be eager to learn, and the senior members will be willing to share experience. Tell the senior members before the drill that you want their input during the class. Senior members’ stories give your training credibility with the probies and reinforce the topic’s relevance.
6 Keep it current. Use up-to-date material. Some topics require an awareness of the past to understand why we do things in the present. Outdated statistics only serve as a history lesson. Pictures and diagrams must be current as well. Pictures of firefighters in rubber coats and pull-up boots do not reflect modern firefighting and may suggest that the instructor is out of touch.
5 Hands-on drills must be hands on. Instruct by using the “I do, we do, you do” approach. Just make sure that they “do”! The key is that when you are done, they can “do.” Consider challenging them with a practical test of the skill during or at the end of the training. Training in the fire service is comprised of many perishable skills that need a continual refresher. Knot tying is the best example of this. You can explain forever on how to do it, but if you don’t put a piece of rope in their hands, they will never learn or remember it unless they practice.
4 Show passion and enthusiasm. The students will feel your interest and enthusiasm. Make them understand why the subject is important to them, and they will remember it. Properly instructing probies to don bunker gear may not be exciting, so add to the lecture the reasons it is important to be in full gear with some case histories from guys who were hurt. Have a guest speaker tell a “war story,” and you will make your point.
3 Be credible. Your students need to know that you have the experience to speak on the subject. Firefighters want to know why they should listen to you, and they can spot a fake from a mile away. The instructor’s personal experiences can make the difference between instruction and “story time.”
2 Know your topic. Being a nationally known expert or having a world of experience isn’t critical, but know your topic, and know it cold. Anticipate questions, and have answers. Don’t guess. Someone in the room may know the answer and will destroy your credibility if you are wrong. To avoid this, ask an open question, and ask other students in the room if anyone knows the answer. This technique helps you build a rapport with the students and creates more of a team effort where all can contribute and all can learn, including the instructor! This technique gives you instant credibility and breaks down group barriers. If you don’t know, say it, and get back to them with the information.
1 Prepare to present. All eyes are on you. It is showtime, and this is no time to “wing it.” If you are prepared, they will never see you sweat. Know the presentation, all the teaching aids, and the technologies. The presentation must be smooth; practice it to avoid “technical difficulties.” Be well rehearsed. Get to the classroom early and set up. Find out early if the projector bulb is broken. Did you bring spare batteries for the laser pointer or wireless mouse? Teachers can’t have bad days. Your students count on you for a consistent presentation. You owe it to them.
CHRISTOPHER FLATLEY is a lieutenant and a 20-year veteran of the Fire Department of New York, assigned to Ladder Company 21. He has almost 30 years in the volunteer fire service and twice served as department chief. He is a nationally certified fire instructor 1 and an instructor at the Rockland County (NY) Fire Training Center and has a degree in fire protection technology.
