For the training officer to do a good job, three things are necessary: a true desire to convey information, the need to promote a successful teaching/learning process, and a little fear of failure.
BY A. PETER MATA
High-tech teaching aids have become inte-gral to instructional presentations in the fire service. Laptops enable us to take our presentation to the student; lightweight bright-light projectors marry the system to video; and software takes you by the hand and explains how to add color, make pictures fly in, and add comical sounds. Technology has given even the most ho-hum of instructors the power of a P.T. Barnum.
But, has this technology actually enhanced training, or has it produced a deficiency in program content? Have the new “technostructors” forced departments with less funding to sacrifice valuable dollars for gadgets that soon become outdated and provide no technical support? The technostructor confirms, by example, to the down-in-the-ditches training officer the need to go high tech to deliver program content accurately. National presenters prancing down convention halls (laptop snuggled neatly under the arm) add to this impression and instill in some training officers a techno endowment envy with a “my gig is bigger than your gig” mentality that is often accompanied by a feeling of impotence.
However, training officers who do not have a multimedia arsenal packed in the closet, RGB proton projectors hanging from rafters, the LED Startrek pulverizer with 900 lumens, or a digital camera with special effects need not suffer from symptoms of the dreaded envy syndrome.
By methodically reviewing standard teaching practices, conducting interviews, revisiting adult learner concepts, and employing instructor introspection, you can keep your instructor envy neatly tucked away in the closet. You can deliver solid training that students will appreciate because you put forth sincere effort and conveyed personal knowledge, not because you used glitzy gadgets.
THE INSTRUCTOR: THE HEART AND SOUL
The most important component of the student learning process is the instructor. The instructor is the deliverer of fact, data, feedback, and reflecting thought. Training solely from a CPU has its place in some arenas. Chief Mike Dolph, program director of the Bayside Community Training Center in Kodiak, Alaska, and PowerPointT presentation mouse master, told me that in the near future he may produce a program that will project facts to a class of students. This projected program would emphasize key points, display a multiple-choice question, and then continue to the next topic. This system would allow the training officer to ensure that training in a multitude of locations would have continuity and be delivered on time, thus allowing the department training officer to tend to other business for the chief. Although Dolph has parameters that make this a viable solution to training needs, many of us do not have the budget to outfit each fire station with a computer, an LCD projector, a CD-ROM burner, a digital camera, and related software.
According to the National Fire Academy (NFA) Fire Service Instructional Methodology course, research has shown that the sense of sight is the most powerful channel to the brain. It is estimated that 75 percent to 90 percent of what we learn comes through our sight; 10 percent to 15 percent of what we learn comes through our hearing. This would seem to imply that not having color images flying across the screen, enlarged localized photos, and amplified snappy music in our presentations may prevent our students from retaining material that could be life saving. Can the down-in-the ditches instructor overcome this technological handicap? Some say we cannot. I disagree.
What’s Needed to Do a Good Job
For the training officer to do a good job, three things are necessary: a true desire to convey information, the need to promote a successful teaching/learning process, and a little fear of failure. These ingredients will enable both the techno and the low-tech instructor to convey information to the student regardless of whether they use a proton projector, a chalkboard, or the faithful flipchart.
Chief Douglas Dougher of Bay City, Michigan, a past president of the Michigan Fire Instructors Association, an NFA field instructor, and a private sector training consultant, describes his experience as a fire instructor: “Every time I enter the classroom, I take a moment to reflect on my personal mission. I need to enjoy myself in the process. I need to know that my students enjoyed themselves as well.”
INSTRUCTOR’S TOOL BOX
Have you, as a training program manager, assisted your staff with the basic tools of instruction? Have you, yourself, forgotten them? Do you need to get them back or even seek them out?
Technology has proven very effective in the station house classroom. Course developers have failed to realize that fire training material is repetitive and sometimes very, very boring. Consequently, gizmo audiovisual aids have made the routine delivery of this mundane material more palatable to the line firefighter. A well-placed screen bean and a few well-edited lines that roll in front of a semicoherent student can open an eye and make a point that will stay in the firefighter’s mind for a long time.
How does the down-in-the-ditches fire instructor make do? Most fire departments do not have the budget for such high-end equipment. Even if the money is allocated, will the instructor be able to decipher a “Learn It Yourself” guide, or will the department be able to assign a staff person to arrange your training notes into a slick PowerPointT presentation weekly?
At most, all the average instructor finds in the classroom is a TV; a VCR; an overhead projector; a slide projector (and, if lucky, a few spare projector bulbs); and, of course, the forgotten flipchart. These are the tools we remember from high school.
As a point of interest, instructors certified through the NFA Fire Service Instructional Methodology field class can state that the student manual does not mention new technology; there’s no techno stuff. Instead, the instructor has to bear with the old standards as noted in the course manual’s “Media” chapter: chalkboard, flipchart, overhead projector, video, audiotapes, film strips (remember those?), and the old standby slide projector. These are the very basic tools that have brought you to this point of your instructor career.
The Emergency Management Institute’s (EMI) Instructional Presentation Skills course manual delves deeper into technology, noting that new instructors should be reminded to add newsprint and whiteboard easel to their arsenal of teaching tools. But, it does not list the modern technological aids. Therefore, the instructor needs to hone his basic presentation skills. But, again, this is not enough.
IMAGINATION AND BASICS
The one tool that will allow the line instructor to compete with high-tech counterparts-even the playing field, if you will-and will help students to retain information is imagination. We often see imagination as something the other person has, but we should try to use whatever we can to overcome the lack of high-technology accoutrements. The manuals, perceived as outdated by today’s modern instructor, may provide the force for us to return to the back-to-basics approach to teaching with a dose of imagination.
Most training officers were not born to be training officers. A survey conducted among an NFA class of national training program managers from 17 states revealed that none had included the position of training officer as part of their projected career path when starting in the fire service.
Unlike professional educators who study the art of teaching, we have little or no training in this field. But, true firefighters try their very best when given an assignment, including the assignment of training our troops. In trying to reach our maximum potential, many of us have taken the NFA Fire Service Instructional Methodology course at minimum. Armed with the information we received many years before, we train our students over and over in the basics of firefighting tactics, CPR, and search and rescue with the hope that we accurately remember the lessons we were taught.
How many times have you referred to your IFSTA Essentials of Fire Fighting manual, the most basic of all firefighting references, with regard to raising ladders, pulling hoselines, or inspecting turnout gear? We play the BASICS, BASICS, BASICS tune on the fife and instruct our troops to dance to it. But, do we ever blow the dust off the education methodology book? Have you as a training program manager held a train the trainer (TtT) review for all your instructors? Tucked neatly between the Table of Contents and the back cover are useful hints we have either forgotten or have arrogantly risen above using. In fact, rereading these lines of text could spark the imagination during our boring presentations.
BASICS OF INSTRUCTING
The basic instructor stands before peers on a regular schedule and tries to make dull topics interesting without using high-end teaching aids. This person may be you or an instructor assigned to you. Regardless, your task is to review only what is not being done to make the delivery interesting, thus improving retention levels and hoping that mastering of skills will come at a more rapid pace.
Computer teaching can far outdo the human mind when there is a need to recite statistical data and refer to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laws and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. But, it does not allow the instructor to communicate personal knowledge to the student. Even though it enhances the delivery and helps the ho-hum instructor, it may overwhelm even the best of instructors and cause some of them to become lazy and allow the computer to replace good solid basic instruction skills.
So what can you do for yourself and your fellow instructors? How about reviewing the basic steps of instruction? A break-the-book-open session for yourself or the instructors under your guidance, similar to the class of repetitive hose pulls, vertical ventilation, or first aid you teach day in and day out, just might prove beneficial. Most of us could use a review.
Look at the Table of Contents of the NFA’s Fire Service Instructional Methodology field class text. Recall the last class you instructed or the last one at which you observed a subordinate instructing.
In Chapter One, the very first passage titled “Communication” states, “To be effective, an instructor must not only have content expertise but must have a thorough understanding of basic teaching and learning principles. We have all faced-at one time or another in our process of trying to obtain an education-one or more instructors who had considerable technical knowledge but who were simply unable to teach effectively.”
Has the technostuctors’ use of modern teaching aids exacerbated this problem by not allowing the teacher to personally convey his knowledge of the material? This method of instruction, which allows the teaching aid to colorfully whiz through standard practices of topics, note NFPA statistics, and show pictures or illustrations of the subject matter, makes for a fun and educational presentation. There is no doubt that this high-tech form of teaching has helped to eliminate the type of instructor described in the manual. A person who has a lot of knowledge but is unable to convey it effectively can use the PowerPointT presentation package, but does this solve the problem?
Communication skill means also brushing up on your public speaking skills-the number one asset of the instructor deprived of sophisticated audiovisual equipment. The NFA Education Methodology instructor guide contains the following quote from Dale Carnegie (How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking, 1956):
“The problem of teaching or of training people in delivery is not one of superimposing additional characteristics; it is largely one of removing impediments, of freeing them, of getting them to speak with the same naturalness that they would display if someone were to knock them down .ellipse It takes practice to be natural before an audience .ellipse And the only way under high heaven by which you can get the knack of this enlarged naturalness is by practice. And, as you practice, if you find yourself talking in a stilted manner, pause and say sharply to yourself mentally, ‘Here! What is wrong? Wake up. Be human.’ Then pick out someone in the audience, some person in the back, the dullest looking character you can find, and talk to him or her. Forget there is anyone else present at all. Converse with him. Imagine that he has asked you a question and that you are answering it. If he were to stand up and talk to you, and you were to talk back to him, that process would immediately and inevitably make your talking more conversational, more natural, and more direct. So, imagine that that is precisely what is taking place.”
A computer-driven program cannot accomplish the task of human interaction. But an instructor driven to teach properly with limited resources can review the basic skills of instruction manuals and, with a little refresher and practice, can spar with the technostructor.
You or your instructors should review the NFA text chapters “Writing Performance Objectives,” “Assessment Techniques,” and “Lesson Plan Development.”
Chapter Eight of the NFA text, “Media,” and, to a lesser degree, Chapter Five, “Instructional Presentational Skills Knowledge Assessment,” of the EMI Instructional Presentation Skills Instructor Guide will guide you in using your imagination to overcome the lack of computer-assisted aids.
EVALUATING YOUR PRESENTATION STYLE
Usually, when we ask our peers for feedback on a presentation we made, the replies will generally fall between “You did well” and “It was great!” We really want to believe it, so we leave it at that.
But self-indulgence lulls us into a false sense of teaching security and allows us to drift from good solid teaching skills. Whereas feedback for the technostructors for the most part is directed at their ability to hit the mouse button, set the volume, or reset the computer when it crashes in the middle of the PowerPointT presentation, we, on the other hand, need honest feedback to improve.
Let’s imagine that you could sit in the back of the classroom and watch yourself teach. What better critic could there be? If you stretch your imagination just a little, you can do just that-watch yourself teach.
What if you added the family video camera to your arsenal of low-cost teaching tools? Bring the camera to class with you. But, beware! This simple everyday device can humble even the best of instructors. Videotape yourself or, if you have instructors working with you, record them, with permission, during a routine training session. Establish some rules for using this tool:
- Allow only the person taped to view his or her tape.
- Have instructors take their videotape off the premises.
Remember what I said at the onset: If the ingredients-a true desire to convey information, the need to promote the successful process of learning, and a little fear-are present, improvement will come, and imagination will flourish because we are our best critics.
TAKING VIDEO TO ANOTHER LEVEL
According to the NFA, film (or video as we will call it) is the best medium for conveying information to students because it affects attitudes, increases factual knowledge, improves information retention, and motivates and influences opinions. Video is even better, explains the NFA, when it is combined with other instructional materials such as those you may have in your own training closet: a chalkboard, a slide projector, an overhead projector, a tape recorder, a flipchart, newsprint, and whiteboard!
Videotapes can be mixed with other media to enhance presentations. Do you use what the instructor’s guide prescribes-relying on the television to eat a large section of valuable instruction time because you feel this medium can teach better than you can? True, it has been written that the video is the best conveyer of information, but viewing a multitude of personal presentations has convinced me that talking heads on a commercially produced video training tape does not a training session make. However, using this medium with other forms of teaching aids can increase student retention.
Using more of that instructor imagination, let’s improve this delivery process. Start with the creative mixing of low-tech media:
- Edit the video down to a reasonable length to allow for the use of old standby instructor tools.
- View your entire training video from beginning to end. Don’t become impatient and push the fast-forward button. If you find it boring, just think of your students.
- Note the key points of your lecture, and cue the tape to the complementary key point. Use that edited portion at the right moment in your lecture. Be the instructor: Pick the right moment, and use the video excerpt to emphasize your lesson point, not to make the point.
- Re-released motion pictures can add some zip to your presentations. Movies such as Towering Inferno and Backdraft as well as some segments of The Three Stooges and The Little Rascals-just to name a few-have snippets that relate to firefighting and life at the fire station. These works are available for rental or purchase and can be used to pump up your presentation. A little of the P.T. Barnum factor added to the body of knowledge you acquired over the years can pull it all together for you in much the same way as the technostructor would use the computer-assisted program to emphasize a point and add some zip.
Pull the trusted flipchart next to the television, and create a review list of your lesson’s major points in three colors (remember what you were taught in Education-Methods: Color is good!). Don’t forget to prewrite the key points lightly in pencil so only you can see them; your students will be amazed at how much you know (and how correctly you can spell!). Add a simple “Happy Face” to make a good point, a “Battered Face” to show conflict, and a “Mean Face” to emphasize policy change. Let imagination enter your closet of teaching tools.
Don’t forget Mr. and Mrs. Stickman. Everyone can draw them. Watch your students smile when this couple makes an appearance on your flipchart. Remember that the flipchart is your best friend when teaching: It never crashes during a presentation. Use glitter; stick-on faces, stars, and dingbats; buy some tempera paint (the kind you used in grade school), and practice drawing Mr. and Mrs. Stick in different poses.
By mixing lecture, video, and illustration in your presentation, you emphasize your major points three times in a session using color; motion; sound; voice inflection; and, more importantly, your basic communication skill. Remember, the tools assist you; they do not teach the point for you.
NEVER GO HIGH-TECH?
Training aids on the cutting edge of technology have assisted the line instructor in delivering information. Some of the information for this report was gathered by touch-tone telephone and was written on a state-of-the-art word processor and might never have been produced if I had to use a manual typewriter. Technology assists us. Each program manager should plan the budget so sophisticated equipment and new and innovative techniques of delivering information can be gradually incorporated.
Staying locked in the past will not help today’s firefighter to acquire new offensive, defensive, and management tactics. But, until you can add new training hardware to your arsenal, your basic teaching concepts and imagination will take your students to the next level. The instructor, not the presentation package, is the heart and soul of every training session.
A. PETER MATA retired from the City of Flint (MI) Fire Department Training Division after a 25-year career and is currently a training coordinator for the State of Michigan Fire Fighters Training Council. He is a producer/on-air personality at Cumlulis Broadcasting Corp. radio station WWCK-FM. He is working toward a B.A. in management/organizational development at Spring Arbor University and is enrolled in the Master Trainer Program at the Emergency Management Institute and is a National Fire Academy alumnus and a national presenter on instructional and management topics in the public and private sectors. He is on staff for the Holland Fire Department.
