You Didn’t Teach Me ‘That’

When Training Isn’t Enough

By Sue Pivetta

If you have a training program that focuses solely on performance and skills, you may be employing a learning theory known as behaviorism.  Behaviorism is a theory of animal and human learning that concentrates solely on objectively observable behaviors, discounting mental activities. Behavior theorists define learning as the acquisition of new behavior.

It is true that learning is supposed to result in a change of behavior, BUT not only behavior.  So, what does this have to do with console training?  Do you ever wonder why a trainee can perform perfectly for you, but when they get out there on his or her own, they either freeze or fall apart?  Possibly, they forgot what they just demonstrated for you a week ago?  Makes you wonder what is happening.

Pavlov’s Dog Conditioning

What is happening is that often when we evaluate someone on a ‘skill’ we are looking at their performance under a certain set of circumstances.  We are teaching the trainee to react to a given set of commands.  When those sets of circumstances and commands are not present, the trainee must ‘think’ through what to do in this particular situation. How well they think may be based on the amount of experience they have had with thinking through similar situations.

Some reactions must be trained through behavior, such as learning how to answer door pages or respond manually to alarms or security doors.

Behavior training can be defined as a form of conditioning.  There are two different types of conditioning, each yielding a distinct behavioral pattern:

1. Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. The phone rings, and we answer it in a certain way. “911, what are you reporting?”  A different line rings and we answer that in a different way.  “Jackson Police non-emergency.”

A notable example is Pavlov’s dogs, which salivate when they eat or even see food.  Think about a lemon right now.   Essentially, animals and people are biologically “wired” so that a certain stimulus will produce a specific response.  We attempt to wire our trainees to behave or react to certain stimuli.

2. Behavioral or operant conditioning occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. Essentially, operant conditioning is a straightforward feedback system: if a reward or reinforcement follows a response to a stimulus, then the response becomes more likely to occur in the future.

The Rat Factor

The opposite of operant conditioning can be seen when there is negative reinforcement of any behavior.  A trainee makes an error in judgment or is too slow in answering the phone, and is corrected or criticized.  An example of this may be when rats are shocked when they take one step towards a food dish.  If they were to take two steps, there would be no shock.  Of course, what type of rat would be willing to take another step and risk more pain?  That would be a very brave rat, a starving rat, or a rat that might be able to consider that not every similar step will result in a similar result.

What Me Think? 

Behaviorism does not account for all kinds of learning, since it disregards the activities of the mind and only considers a physical reaction to stimulus not a judgment.

judg·ment also judge·ment    n.

The act or process of judging; the formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation.

1. 1. The mental ability to perceive and distinguish relationships; discernment:
   2. The capacity to form an opinion by distinguishing and evaluating:
   3. The capacity to assess situations or circumstances and draw sound conclusions; good sense:

You can see from the above that to use good judgment, there must be the ability to formulate one’s OWN opinion, own perception, and interpretations of relationships.  This is a very personal and internal process that is usually not shown to the trainee by the trainer.  So, the question is this – instead of asking the trainee to act like the trainer, we somehow have to allow the trainee to view the trainer’s judgment process.  For that to happen, the trainer would not ACT and think out loud.  Or the trainer could act and then explain their perception, opinion, or assessment, along with the basis for it, which resulted in this particular action.  Sounds complicated, but it’s actually quite simple.  It’s training through dialogue.

 Provoking The Trainee

It is said that a good teacher provides information, a great teacher provokes learning.  Have you ever heard of a dog obedience course where the handlers were asked to encourage their dogs?   If there is any workplace on the earth that requires the worker to use all of their operational brain, it is emergency call taking and dispatching. Trainers cannot demand that trainees think; they can only provide a SAFE environment for them to do so.  To do this, trainers must be skilled at understanding the many and varied adult learning methods employed beyond responding to stimuli.

Traditional training may no longer be sufficient.  Very rarely do you hear someone was fired because they couldn’t adjust their chair, pull the paper off the printer, push the right button on the console, or click the right frequency with the mouse, or hit the door release correctly.  Examine any lawsuit, and what you will find is a person who behaved in a particular manner – based on their judgment of what to do. We are often left wondering what possessed them to do that? Often, we can determine that it was acting without the brain being engaged, which is precisely what behavior conditioning was intended to do.

“Sit Fido!”

“Sit”,  I said, but instead he looked at me quizzically, his head cocking side to side, ears flopping gracefully.  Fido was obviously considering my request – formulating a judgment.

“Should I sit, why would I want to, what are the consequences of sitting, of not sitting? What is her intent and why now, why me, what are her motives and what would be the worst that would happen should I decide not to sit”

 He sat. I wasn’t surprised as Fido had excelled in his puppy training, it was a proud moment when I realized he had formulated an opinion after consideration or deliberation because he had the mental ability to perceive and distinguish relationships and the capacity to form an opinion by determining and evaluating and the capacity to assess situations or circumstances and draw sound conclusions; and finally use good sense.  Good dog!

Reading
D.C. Phillips & Jonas F. Soltis, Perspectives on Learning