Discussion+on+the+current+state+of+Navy+Training+and+the+use+of+Scenarios

Information Sheet

Introduction When developing training, everything and anything can be used as a tool to assist in getting the instructional point across to the student, This information sheet is going to focus on increasing personnel initiative and problem solving by using the power of scenarios in learning.

Reference

Information One of the factors that have always set the US Military apart is personnel initiative and problem solving. Many current Navy programs from Operational Stress Control (OSC), Operational Risk Management (ORM) and many others try to encourage these traits. There are many programs that fail to achieve that objective because they focus on teaching only KPL1 (knowledge / recall / comprehension). You may not be able to fully teach people to take personnel initiative or problem solving skills, but it can be encouraged, practiced, assessed and supported by training to take action that's appropriate and safe. This environment of learning is created by teaching at the KPL2 / SPL1 (Application / Analysis and Imitation) and by using realistic scenarios and/or problems (by the way, the whole foundation of the E2E process and Learning Object (LO) Module). One of the benefits (see below for the real reason) of having a Navy Instructor teaching is to explain real problems and walk the students through the process explaining the appropriate actions they should take. Then by having the students practice on similar problems and explaining those actions back to the instructor, learning occurs and reinforcement of key points can be achieved. While many of you may think that the telling of the story and how the Instructor would respond is why having a real person is important, it is not, IMI could do that. The real person (instructor) is critical to evaluate the student response to determine if they are appropriate, safe and is required to provide feedback to those responses (that's why it is important). IMI can not address all the options that a student would come up with, and having the student recommend an unsafe or inappropriate action without it being corrected would be unsafe to the student and negative training to the overall objective.

Some of you may think, this can't be taught (or the author is nuts), or this is some huge risk (it can be if you allow it to get out of control and don't perform proper levels of Analysis and factor that into the design of training development, that's why we pay for a 1750) but if you look at some of the incidents that have happened to the Navy (various Navigational mistakes, DC, Firefighting, Storage of Hazmat and Force Protection, etc....) that get blamed on a lack of training. We all agree it is not a lack of training (it was a Leadership problem is our normal response), but from a training view point, it can be blamed on us for not teaching the student at the right instructional levels and getting after those skills like personnel initiative and problem solving. A very similar concern / problem is being addressed by the other services (US Army Gator 6 the training of Officers to take acceptable risk to accomplish the mission) or other real training organizations they do this all the time.

In the reference section, an After-Action-Report for the Battle of Coral Sea from the USS Yorktown (CV-5) is a great example that builds on previous learning, gives realistic problems (from Radar failure, returning Aircraft to flight status to repairing ship battle damage). One major lesson learned in this report illustrates the reason for the loss of USS Lexington (Aviation Fuel Explosion) and the change the Yorktown made during the battle. The Japanese Navy did not learn this lesson and lost numerous Aircraft Carriers during the war even as late as June 1944 (Taiho lost to a aviation fuel vapor explosion after being hit by a torpedo). Go here if you wish to read about the event referenced.

Hope this helps explain why the E2E process focuses on the work, moves learning objectives to performance and the shift to AIM LO Module. If not e-mail me.

include component="navigation"