Training processes in firefighter institutions. A constant challenge… in constant making.

By 1º Corporal (RE) Alecio, Alberto “Beto”. Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina.

“Experience has a lot to tell. However, we choose to start from what can quickly contribute to the teaching practices. In that sense, we, loyal to our “teachers” roots, start from the DIDACTIC STRATEGIES, defined briefly as: the particular ways of teaching…particular because they take into account…”

Introduction

Re-thinking (as a synonym of reflecting, analyzing and subsequently putting into action) in our institutions (at least our own, encompassing the City and inviting the rest of the regions), is not a utopia anymore. It “was” (only the past shows itself as a base stone of the future) an experience we lived in 2020 (complex year if there ever was one… and there will be), a reality that, as such, deserves to be told, with its hits and misses.

Experience has a lot to tell. However, we choose to start from what can quickly contribute to the teaching practices. In that sense, we, loyal to our “teachers” [1]roots, start from the DIDACTIC STRATEGIES, defined briefly as: the particular ways of teaching…particular because they take into account:

-“who are we teaching”: firefighters in this case (in diverse levels: trainees, level 1, subordinate sub officials, superior subordinates…)

-“what are we teaching”: contents, technics, skills…

-“what for we are teaching”: simply put, to prevent and intervene in diverse emergencies…

-“why we are teaching”: to be able to answer to national and provincial laws mandates… to put into action our vocation to serve…

This analysis could continue, but it would be an excess and we would be losing the focus of this communication: we want to put the focus in a potential way of teaching our firefighters (yet not the only one in any way).

Finally, from the perspective we pose, it is possible to anticipate some theory aspects related to how we teach: the didactic strategies. For starters, as a sort of guide, the following items might be clarifying:

-1. LEARNING: the “new knowledge”, what we don’t know, what we know “little” about, can be learnt in many ways, according to the difficulty level, the complexity and potential risks associated to the skills; in general, we can use the following methodological steps:

- Presentations from the instructor: with diverse supports (audiovisuals: PowerPoint presentations, videos, among others). In the case of a procedure or technical skill, the teaching style might be the “DIRECT INSTRUCTION” [2], in exceptional cases, the GUIDED DISCOVERY [3].

-“Trainings” of a specific technique, where the instructors intervene with “triggering” questions (that help “create” solutions), guiding the application of what they LEARNED, whit brief interjections that guide the action as well as the discovering of potential solutions.

-2. PRACTISING: once learned, the knowledge must be applied, as well as the technics, and new skills, to SPECIFIC SITUATIONS OF LOW UNCERTAINTY (with no tactical decisions. Firstly, techniques of, for example, line assembling): REPETITION OF THE TASK IN THE SAME SITUATION, where in the end the instructors stimulate the critical reflection over one’s own performance (SELFEVALUATION), coming up with adjustments when repeating the task. Progressively, the instructor will request more speed in the execution, which will come with the technical progress. During the next steps, more techniques will be added (for example, assembling lines with EPP and ERA; and afterwards, the same task including the previous equipment), progressively adding complexity to the task starting from the integration of existing knowledge, requesting the decrease in the time.

-3. TRAINING: once trainees reach the expected standards (which will come out of the periodic evaluations carried out and registered whit diverse tools, for example “check lists”), they will be requested to solve changing situations with added uncertainty, where they need to apply technics, after making decisions over the problem presented. Progressively, they will be requested to decrease the time for the resolution, as well as the application of more diverse techniques, every time more complex and integrated.

Taking a quote from Second Lieutenant Héctor Fabio Heano Díaz, Education Department Coordinator of the NATIONAL DIRECTION OF FIREFIGHTERS OF COLOMBIA, MERITORIOUS OF VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT OF COLOMBIA, TULUA’S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, in which he refers to the formative process that is necessary to walk, he manifests: “Capacitation is an educational process of strategic character, applied in an organized and systematic manner, through which the personnel acquires or develops knowledge and skills relative to the work, and modifies their attitudes towards aspects of the organization, the position or the job environment. [4]

[1]Alberto Alecio, Bachelor and professor in Physical Education, 35 years of experience in teaching different levels and 30 years of experience “coming and going” as volunteer firefighter.

[2] Mosston, M; Ashworth, S.; 1993; The teaching of physical education; Hispanoeuropean editions S.A.

[3] Ibidem: presenting problematic situations of controlled difficulty, where we stimulate the possibility of “searching answers”, creating opportunities to build intervention techniques with the guidance and adjustments of the instructor/s.

[4] Henao Diaz, H.F.; 2018; Education Department Coordinator of the NATIONAL DIRECTION OF FIREFIGHTERS OF COLOMBIA, MERITORIOUS OF VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT OF COLOMBIA, TULUA’S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, PROJECT OF CAPACITATION PLAN FOR TULUA’S FIREFIGHTERS, NORM NFPA 1001 – YEAR 2018 – 2019