By Philip Duczyminski
The learning process in firefighter education is unique although it follows the traditional concepts of the learning process. Many of us have sat through hundreds of lectures. What does it take to become involved and active in the learning process? For many, the hands-on practical skills are necessary to pull everything together. To become truly engaged, however, firefighters must care about the subject being presented. Instructors must reach their affective domain.
Bloom’s Taxonomy identifies three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. The cognitive domain relates to thinking and the classification of knowledge. The psychomotor domain pertains to our physical/kinesthetic skills, or task classification. The affective domain includes behaviors associated with emotion/feeling and involves attitude and values.
Each domain is equally important. Students need to fully understand the subject matter and, in firefighting especially, must be able to physically perform all required practical skills. The real trick is to have students learn to care about what they are learning.
Why does this matter if students know the material and can physically perform the required tasks? Knowing a concept and being able to perform a task based on that concept do not necessarily mean that the student thoroughly understands the concept involved. Affective outcomes are often closely related to deeper levels of thinking and lifelong learning1 and are the most difficult to articulate. Students engaged in the subject recognize its value, exhibit a change of attitude, and ultimately achieve a consistent behavior. The instructors’ goal is to have students learn the information, value it, organize it, and characterize themselves by internalizing the values and acting in a manner advocated by the training program.
Have you ever been in a class where you simply sat through it with no emotion and could care less about the topic? If so, you probably will barely recall any of the information taught in that class. As soon as the final class was done or the final exam was completed, you felt as if someone had purged all of the information from your brain. On the other hand, if the instructor had engaged you in such a way that you took the subject personally, you probably felt compassionate enough about the subject that you would argue against anyone who felt differently until you were blue in the face. This is the level instructors strive to reach.
Components of the Affective Domain
There are five steps in the taxonomy of the affective domain:
Receiving. This is the most basic level. The student is aware of the existence of ideas, materials, or phenomena and is willing to tolerate them. Delivering the subject material for the students to receive indicates only the students’ willingness to hear. This is not always a slam dunk. There may be barriers to learning that would interfere with this – for example, a student who had been insulted by the instructor may be harboring resentment against the instructor and may be present in class only because he has to attend. This instructor can mentally block students from absorbing all of the information. To be effective, instructors need to do their best to prevent or eliminate such barriers by engaging in discussion and setting the class at ease.
Obviously, instructors should have a deeper understanding of the subject matter than the students. They must know the audience. Students can tell when an instructor does not have a solid understanding of the subject matter; this situation may lead some to block out the material presented. It is difficult to regain the confidence of a class once it has eroded. There may be times when a student has a better understanding of a concept than the instructor. In this situation, the instructor should engage the student and have the class benefit from this knowledge. Bring this individual into the discussion, and allow him to share his expertise.
I teach at a combination department, and many of our personnel are automotive engineers. When I teach vehicle extrication, I am confident in my knowledge base to bring up-to-date information into the classroom. However, some of these individuals have real-world experience in designing and building vehicles. I ask these individuals to share their “new” information with the classes. In this way, the students become involved in the learning process and achieve greater results. Strategically engaging these individuals also makes the instructor appear more competent.
Responding. The student responds to these ideas, materials, or phenomena. This step is relatively easy to achieve. Instructors want the students to participate in active discussion and question new ideas or concepts so they can fully understand them. Asking questions and calling on students at random may not meet this objective. The goal is voluntary active participation. Every classroom has some individuals who aggressively participate and are more than eager to respond. We do not want to disengage these students. The key is to allow them to respond in moderation while encouraging the other students to participate.
Sometimes, students hesitate to answer questions because they are not confident in their answers and don’t want to give the wrong response. Some tools are available to help encourage these students. One product, for example, integrates into a slide presentation and allows students to respond through a remote device. A question is posed, and students click on the remote to indicate their response. When the instructor ends the response period, the data collected appear on the screen. The students answer the questions anonymously, but the instructor can gauge whether the students have a solid understanding of the subject by the number of correct answers.
Valuing. The student is willing to be perceived as valuing these ideas, materials, and phenomena. Getting students to value the subject material can be tricky. At the very basic level, valuing can be getting the students to accept the material presented. However, this process can proceed only to the point at which the students are committed to the concepts. Valuing is based on internalizing a set of values while the clues of these values are expressed in the students’ behavior and are often identifiable.2
For the students to value the information, the instructor must value it first. If you don’t truly believe in what you are teaching, chances are that it will be obvious to the students. To get students to value a training program on the modern principles of fire attack (SLICE-RS), for example, we need to get them to really care about the subject. Presenting strong case studies on near misses or line-of-duty deaths demonstrates the importance of the subject. If we can correlate the case study with information as to how the training will create a safer fireground, we can sell the value based on the obvious merits.
Organizing. This is the process in which the student assigns value to the ideas, materials, or phenomena and internalizes them as a consistent philosophy. Priorities are classified by contrasting values, resolving conflict among them, and creating a unique value system. Comparing, relating, and synthesizing values are emphasized. (2)
When we look at this process, we can visualize a student in a classroom thinking about the other methods used for fire attack and the reasons some of them were used in the past. When solid information is presented in a manner that is free from barriers, students can begin to process and organize the material in a way that makes sense to them. Everyone’s process for storing information is unique. If you ask a student to restate what he learned, he will explain the details according to his method of organizing the material.
Characterizing. The student acts consistently in accordance with the values he has internalized.3 This is the point where the student’s value system determines his behavior, which is sometimes a difficult achievement.
Let’s say the class topic was performing a 360° walk-around on the fireground. After months of teaching and drilling on this size-up, the students respond to a fire, and their performance reveals that they did not see or internalize the true value of the 360°. How do you resolve this? There is no easy universal process. The remedy lies in constructing instructional objectives adapted to each student’s general pattern of personal, social, and emotional adjustment. To get to the point of characterization, the student must value the information.
Why Should the Students Care?
The instructor’s influence on the student can play a significant role in how well the instructor reaches the student’s affective domain. As an instructor, you can influence human behavior in two ways: You can manipulate it, or you can inspire it. To inspire, you need to articulate why.4
Instructors must be good communicators to be able to influence students, especially when it comes to answering the students’ “why” questions: Why do we have to do things this way? Why can’t we do things as we did in the past? Why should anyone care? Very few people can clearly articulate why they do what they do. To be an inspiration, an instructor must show why he believes the lesson is important. This can help build areas of agreement between instructor and student. Lowering the number of firefighter line-of-duty deaths comes to mind as an issue that would foster consensus among instructors and students. The instructor needs to clearly show how the lesson fits into the student’s life. (4) Students don’t buy into “what” we do; they buy into “why” we do it.
The importance of “why” and “how” to humans may have some basis in biology. The most advanced part of our brain – the neocortex – corresponds with the “what.” The limbic system of our brain is concerned with the “why” and “how.” This is also the part of the brain responsible for our feelings, decision making, and behavior.5
Passion Is Contagious!
Instructors must keep creating new ways to generate interest and foster a deeper level of thinking in students. You must have a passion for what you do if you are to inspire others, especially your students. Fireground training is extremely difficult to recreate, but there are some things you can do to provide training that creates enthusiasm. In my classes, for example, I take a photo of our training tower and add some smoke, flames, a roof, and so on. This gives crews an idea of “why” they are doing this. Students need to be able to visualize a burning building to get the sensation that they are on a real incident. From there, I use a smoke machine in the fire area to simulate the chaos fire crews would normally experience, and I add a radio blaring music to hinder communications. These simple techniques create some stimuli and create conditions that are more like those of the real-world fireground.
Ways to Enhance Teaching
Following are some other suggestions for enhancing your teaching:
- Provide a comfortable atmosphere; eliminate any barriers. Students must feel relatively comfortable and safe.
- Deliver your presentation with energy and enthusiasm. The passion you display for the material will project onto your students. If they feel that you don’t care about the subject, chances are they won’t either.
- Know your audience so you can tailor your instruction patterns to their most effective learning methods.
- Use case studies and examples. In firefighting, students want to know how and why a concept works.
- Use different teaching activities. Adult learners do not like to sit in a classroom for two hours of lecture. Do not let them sit too long; get them up and active.
- Thoroughly understand the subject, and be aware of what you don’t know. Prepare. Prepare. Prepare.
- Engage students to think, and prepare them to respond. Be free with praise. Keep negative comments about students out of the classroom.
- Engage everyone. Do not allow one student to dominate the classroom conversation.
- Allow debate, but ensure that it does not get out of control. Moderate it, and do not tolerate insults.
- Provide stimuli in the training experience. Create realistic scenarios that make students feel as if they are in an emergency environment.
- Take some calculated risks. Challenge yourself.
As your overall training objective, adopt the following saying from Confucius: “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.” Brainstorm with firefighters to see what would hold their interest. I have found that building new training obstacles always gets a good response from students.
Firefighters get bored easily and need to be challenged. If you provide these challenges to keep them interested and engaged, you will create a high-quality training program that will reach your students’ affective domain and get them to care about their training.
References
1. Bloom, BS, Krathwohl, DR, & Masia, BB. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook II: Affective domain. New York: David McKay Co.
2. Kraftwohl, D, Bloom, B, & Masia, B. (1967). Taxonomy of educational objectives, the classification of educational goals: handbook II: affective domain. David McKay Company.
3. Kirk, K. (2015). “What is the affective domain anyway?” Retrieved from Carlton College: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/intro.html.
4. Changella. (2013, Oct 5). Simon Sinek: “How great leaders inspire action.” Retrieved from Inspire to Educate: http://inspiredtoeducate.net/changella/simon-sinek-how-great-leaders-inspire-action/.
5. Lawrence, J. (2014, Feb 5). Simon Sinek- how do great leaders inspire action? Retrieved from HR Zone: http://www.hrzone.com/perform/people/simon-sinek-how-do-great-leaders-inspire-action.
PHILIP DUCZYMINSKI is a 19-year veteran of the fire service, a captain, and the head of the Training Division of the Novi (MI) Fire Department. He has served with the Western Wayne County Haz-Mat Team and MI-TF1. A graduate of the School of Fire Staff and Command at Eastern Michigan University, Duczyminski is a certified Michigan fire instructor and an EMS instructor coordinator. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science.
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