Desire and Responsibility to Learn

 To be effective in this dynamic, high-risk occupation we must accept the perpetual cycle of acquiring, shaping, and honing knowledge and skills. The learning journey is never finished.

“If you choose to lead others you will have a legacy. I suppose I would want my legacy to be that firefighters begin to realize the importance of being a student of fire, and that I was able to help make that happen.” - Paul Gleason

Being a student of fire requires that you develop a thirst for lifelong learning and “cast your net widely” through inquiry to discover and take advantage of new opportunities to learn.

The desire to learn is something that may come and go along your journey. Learning is not always easy. It takes effort. It is sometimes painful. It is understandable that the desire to learn will wax and wane.

The responsibility to learn is a different matter; it does not go away. To be effective in this dynamic, high risk occupation we must accept the perpetual cycle of acquiring, shaping, and honing knowledge and skills. The learning journey is never finished.

The nature of our organization is such that everyone we train and educate is an adult learner. However, not all adult learners or learning environments are alike. Before attempting to design, develop, or implement training or education for firefighters, it is necessary to know more about who the students are and how they learn.

One of the factors that leaders consider when creating or implementing training and education is establishing who will learn. Entry-level firefighters learn in a very structured, teacher-centered environment because they lack experience or knowledge of the firefighting community.

Firefighting, all-hazards incident management, and the specific skills within those broad disciplines are all new to them. More structure must be provided for instruction to be efficient and effective.

At the same time, however, it is important to treat them like adults. They do bring life experience into the classroom and they will exhibit some characteristics of adult learners. Young firefighters will be more motivated and more apt to take responsibility for their learning if they are respected as adults.

By contrast, senior and mid-level firefighters bring a wide range of knowledge and experience into the instructional environment. As such, more learner-centered activities are needed to allow the students to use and build upon the knowledge and experience they already possess.

This section will discuss adult learning theories in broad terms and how they apply when designing, developing and implementing instruction for different populations of firefighting students.

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