BY DAVE WALSH
Training is unquestionably one of the top pri- orities of every fire department, career and volunteer. To be most effective, training must occur on a regular basis and it must be presented in a standardized format. Since the fire service is expected to handle a very wide range of dangerous situations in a safe and expedient manner, training has never been as important as it is today. Compounded by the fact that the experience levels of many fire service personnel are somewhat diminished as the frequency of serious incidents continues to decrease, a heavy responsibility is placed on any officer who conducts training. You must conduct effective training on all of the types of incidents to which you may respond, and you must do this in a thorough and effective manner. To compound this issue, this training must be done with personnel who have lower levels of experience because of fewer critical incidents, reduced personnel, and retirements, just to name a few factors. This is a daunting challenge, to say the least.
Every training session must have a specific objective-exactly what you want to accomplish. This objective should not be just to satisfy some legal requirement or to support corresponding paperwork; every drill should be focused on improving attendees’ knowledge and skills.
Teaching is defined as “to cause to learn.” Learning is defined as “the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill” or a “change in behavior.” The student learns; the instructor teaches. However, good instructors learn from every lesson they present. So the question is, How do you determine if the students have truly learned something? The leading expert on a certain topic could lecture for three hours and, in the end, have accomplished nothing. The bottom line always is how the firefighter uses the knowledge or skills learned.
A great example is new recruits. The first day they arrive, they have no idea of how to wear their personal protective equipment (PPE) or why they should wear it. During the lesson, the instructor explains why proper use of PPE is vital to their safety. The recruits are shown how to don it; the recruits practice putting on their gear until they don it properly. When they have done it correctly, the instructor verifies that they learned how to do it. Without this verification, the instructor would have little idea if the objective was satisfied.
LESSON PLAN: OBJECTIVES
A lesson plan is your roadmap for training; it is vital to success. It is the keystone that allows all of the components of a drill or class to operate together as a team. It keeps you on track, ensures everything is covered, and provides continuity each time you give that lesson. And, of course, I’d be remiss if I don’t mention liability. If anything ever happens and that training is called into question, your documentation, including your lesson plan, will be crucial to your survival. As you prepare your lesson plan for your drill or class and start to write specific objectives, focus on four factors:
• A-Audience: When analyzing your audience, you have three items to consider:
-What are the values, needs, and constraints of your audience? Presenting a lesson on a general topic is fine when working with large groups, but hands-on, practical exercises or in-depth analyses are more effective with small groups.
-What is the knowledge level of the audience? Will those attending your presentation be rookies, veterans, or folks between these two levels? More often, your audience will include firefighters of various knowledge levels.
-What will work and what will not work? You need to ask yourself what types of presentation will gain the most favorable reaction from the audience. For example, most students will learn more by using the new thermal imaging camera than by watching someone else demonstrate how to use it.
• B-Behavior: What do you want the attendees to be able to do when you are finished? The majority of presentations delivered in professional settings are persuasive in nature. You are trying to change some aspect of the audience’s behavior.
• C-Condition: Under what circumstances do you want the audience to be able to perform the new skill or demonstrate the knowledge? For example, operating a thermal imaging camera in a classroom setting is much different from operating it while wearing full PPE under live-fire conditions.
• D-Degree: To what level of competency-“in less than two minutes” or “as per department SOGs,” for example.
If every objective answers these questions, you’ll know exactly what the end result should be. As an example, “the recruit firefighter, given a full set of National Fire Protection Association-compliant, department-issued turnout gear, will properly don the gear in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and departmental SOGs in 90 seconds.”
Now, the student and the instructor are clear on what needs to be accomplished to determine that learning has taken place and that the objectives have been met. Without clear-cut objectives, the drill will wander aimlessly and, in the end, likely not have accomplished anything.
A wise “old” fire instructor once said, “I heard, I saw, then I did; now I understand.” This indicates the importance of making sure the troops actually apply and use the information. The best fire instructor in the world could give an excellent lecture on peaked-roof ventilation, but unless the attendees actually go out and perform the task, it is unrealistic to think they can do it.
FOUR PLANNING STEPS
There are four steps to creating a lesson plan and presenting a class:
• Preparation: The attendees must realize why this information is important. You must motivate them so they accept the information and know how to apply it. As an example, if your class was on PPE, stress its importance by showing them the dangers of wearing their PPE improperly or not properly maintaining it.
• Presentation: Tell the information: what it is, why it is as it is, and how students should be able to apply it. This is where they realize how they can use the information.
• Application: Have the students use the information and realize its benefits. In a hands-on drill, this is where they actually perform the skill. With a classroom drill, this is where they would demonstrate their knowledge in a tabletop exercise or a group project.
• Evaluation: The students are tested or evaluated to determine if they have learned the skill. If it’s a hands-on skill, they perform it per specifications. If it is a classroom topic, they can take a written test to verify that learning has taken place.
METHODS
It is important to use the proper methods to reach your audience. People generally remember the following:
Applying this information shows us that it would be best if the students heard the information while they saw it. Writing it down and then talking about it, or applying it, also reinforces it in their minds. Undoubtedly, firefighters like visual stimulation and doing “hands-on” activities, but things should progress in a specific order.
With that in mind, it is best to use the following sequence when teaching a “hands-on” skill:
• show it at normal speed,
• show it at a slow speed while narrating what you are doing,
• student describes it as the instructor performs tasks,
• student performs task while instructor coaches, and
• student performs while the instructor evaluates.
TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE DRILLS
The knowledge and skills firefighters receive at the fire academy are only part of their training and education. Regular participation in drills provides important information regarding new techniques and equipment while reinforcing the knowledge and skills obtained at the academy. It is important that fire officers and instructors present effective drills. Here are some rules to follow to maximize the effectiveness of your drills:
• Make sure the purpose (topic) of the drill is worthwhile.
• Create specific objectives; know exactly what you want to accomplish.
• Plan everything to the smallest detail. Make sure it is in a logical order.
• Make sure the attendees are involved throughout the drill or class.
• Put yourself in their shoes.
• Be accurate-fact not fiction. Know what you are talking about. Don’t bluff.
• Avoid using the word “I”; it denotes your personal thoughts.
• Be on time: start on time, break on time, and end on time.
• Be professional: you (how you look, sound, and act), the lesson plan, and the drill.
• Make sure your students are better because they participated in the drill. Challenge them, give them the tools to succeed, and then watch them thrive and enjoy their success.
• Make it fun. Everybody likes to have a little fun. It can easily be inserted into a drill or class without detracting from the content or objectives.
Following are some ways to incorporate fun:
• Brain teaser-there are tons of them out there; students love them. Start a class off with one as a warm-up exercise and an ice breaker. Do a Google search for “brain teasers.”
• Bring a bag of lollipops or hard candy; award them for correct answers to your questions. You’ll be amazed at the responses.
• Insert any of the thousands of funny pictures on the Web into your Power Point® show. Of course, make sure they are appropriate. A good instructor can find a way to tie any picture to the current topic.
• Insert video clips into your slide show. Even a funny 10-second clip can be a big shot in the arm for a class.
• Play a game. With just a little Power Point® savvy, you can easily “build” a “Jeopardy” game on your topic. Divide the students into equal teams, and let them compete against each other. This is a great way to satisfy annual refresher requirements or to summarize a class you just completed.
• Let them compete against each other in hands-on skills: PPE/SCBA donning, ground ladder raises, tying knots, hitting a hydrant, for example. But be careful not to sacrifice safety or efficiency for speed.
No mention of fun would be complete without saying that nobody should ever have any fun if it is at the expense of someone else or compromises safety.
We’ve all heard firefighters complain that some topics are just plain boring.
Two examples are the annual refresher training in bloodborne pathogens and hazardous materials. But both of these topics are primed for creative instruction. Remember that, for the most part, annual refresher training on any topic is intended to ensure that the personnel are competent in that subject. It doesn’t mean that you have to conduct a full review of the topic and beat every tidbit of information to death. Consider doing a very brief review; then assign the students to small groups and throw a problem at them. Have the groups work through the problem. For bloodborne pathogens, you could say that a member just got splattered with blood and ask, “What should you do now?” For hazardous materials, tell them they are dispatched to a report of an “unknown substance.” Ask, “What should you do?” If, in the end, each group creates an appropriate plan and presents it to the entire group, the students likely demonstrated competency, and you have met the objective.
HOW TO “KILL” A DRILL
Just as there are rules that ensure an effective drill, there are surefire ways to kill a drill:
• Start late. When you don’t start exactly on time, you send a message that you don’t care about the topic. Now, they won’t care either.
• Be unprepared-you; your lesson plan; AV equipment; handouts; and logistical support equipment needed for that topic, such as saws, ladders, and so on.
• Bad-mouth the topic: “The chief says we have to do this, but I think it is ridiculous.”
• Bluff. Nobody knows everything. Be honest, and tell them you don’t know and that you will find out and get back to them.
• Be apathetic. If you don’t care about what you are doing and don’t have passion for your topic, neither will they.
• Waste their time. Make sure every minute serves a purpose.
• Bore them. I have heard some of the most knowledgeable fire officers speak, but their boring speaking methods caused them to lose the audience in the first 10 minutes. Be passionate about your topic.
• • •
Let’s say your computer guru friend tells you he invented a program that allows you to build a bionic fire instructor. He asks you what qualities should be programmed into the instructor. What would you answer? Try the following:
• knowledgeable,
• passionate about the topic (be a salesman),
• caring,
• organized,
• creative,
• a pleasant speaking voice,
• entertaining,
• loaded with common sense, and
• dynamic.
Undoubtedly, these qualities conjure up memories of an instructor you had way back when. Model your training after that instructor so your firefighters remember you when they’re conducting their training. Be prepared, be professional, start on time, take breaks as needed, and keep them busy. Make the best use of the available time, and keep them involved. Challenge them, and then acknowledge their success. And, of course, always have a Plan “B.” ■
■ DAVE WALSH spent 34 years in the fire service, 27 as a career firefighter. He is the chairperson/instructor for the fire science program at Dutchess Community College, NY; a state fire instructor at the New York State Academy of Fire Science; and an adjunct instructor for the New York State Emergency Management Office.
