9 Feb 22
I mentioned in my post on 23 January about my students who I would put through extremely stressful, complex scenarios to help them work through critical thinking. As an instructor, you often get put in weird spots as far as how much input you give to a student versus letting them “figure it out”. I will say up front that it is definitely an art and one that took some time to figure out myself. The best thing for the readers, however, is that you get to see all of my lessons learned here to hopefully help guide your own journey with this one.
This will obviously be related to my current position and the position I held as an instructor during that assignment. However, the techniques involved should be considered with whoever your student is and in whatever environment you are teaching so long as it is critical thinking you are planning as the outcome for your student to achieve.
So, to recap from the 23 Jan post:
On the other hand, we had a lot of guys that just froze. When I say froze that is exactly what I mean. They literally shut down, couldn’t even form a sentence, or just stared at a map or a notepad or a situational awareness display without doing anything else. It was almost like their gears were turning but the cogs were not engaged to make things happen. Often, when this happened, I would have to step in and ask what they were doing. When I wouldn’t get a response at all I would have different actions for how I would respond (more on that in a later post).
So, how did I teach someone who froze how to start fixing that problem? Well, I taught them a vulgar pneumonic that they couldn’t forget at all: FUCK…
So, let’s take a scenario and work from there… you have given your student a complex problem to start working through and they have now frozen. As an instructor you are balancing a lot of things in this situation but the majority of your thought is probably around a single question: “How long do I let them struggle?”
Well, let’s think about what the goal is for a minute. Your ultimate goal with this student is to ensure that they can critically think through an issue and make a decision and act on it right? Well, then your question is sort of irrelevant as an instructor. The time doesn’t matter, but your actions do. (didn’t expect that one did you?)
Okay, so what am I talking about? The amount of time your student struggles doesn’t matter in the moment, that is something for you to debrief. Your job as an instructor is to remind your student of the things they already know and assist them in working through the problem, right? If you didn’t answer yes, you’re probably not ready to teach critical thinking…
Step 1. Identify that your student is frozen.
This will be really obvious. Because, as I stated in the earlier post, they will literally not be doing anything.
Step 2. In scenario, give your student clues.
Okay, so the idea here is that we are in a scenario-based situation in order to accomplish problem-based learning and present our students with issues to critically think through (wow, so many concepts all piled into one!). So, use your “characters” in scenario to give your student clues and hints on what needs to be done.
EXAMPLE: For me, as an instructor in the scenario I would often talk to the student as if I was their Ground Force Commander or another asset in their inventory, or a scout that was reporting activity that needed to be actioned, or another unit that was seeing something that needed to be actioned. What does that sound like?
ME (pretending to be another element): Hey [insert student callsign here] we are starting to see additional enemy movement coming out of building 169. I need to stop them from advancing ASAP.
STUDENT: Acknowledges the communication and starts to action the targets.
Okay, so is it always that easy? Hell no! But that is where you keep advancing your techniques.
Step 3: In scenario, tell your student exactly what needs to be done.
That sounds pretty easy right? Well instead of you literally telling your student exactly what they need to say you need to still remain “in character” so their head is still in the game. So just as in step 2 you just take that communication a little further. So, using the exact same entities as before here is what it could sound like.
ME (pretending to be another element): Hey [insert student callsign here] I need immediate containment fires on the following coordinate. I am 800m north and they are closing on my position.
STUDENT: Acknowledges communication, double checks the data that was sent to them and actions it.
Step 4: Pause the scenario and remind your student of the next step
If you are here, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to ensure your student knows that we are no longer in scenario. Pause, work with your student and start working through the problem set together. Figure out where your student is at mentally and what they are thinking. Try to determine if they are on the right step or not and then on the spot correct it if they are not on the right track. This entire time is a teaching moment for your student to remind them of the appropriate way to solve the problem and start working.
The second half of this step is CRITICAL. You MUST get your student back in the scenario to practice what you just instructed them so they can immediately apply the technique you just instructed them on.
Okay, so that isn’t too bad, 4 quick steps, 3 of them focused on the scenario and 1 of them (absolutely the last resort) is to come out of the scenario and help your student out.
The most common question I get at this point when instructing other instructors is literally about complete failure. “Hey John, is there any time where we just let the student fail at completing the task and/or solving the problem?”
The answer to this is simply, yes. Failure is extremely important when learning in problem-based learning environments. At least in my experience it is. But you as the instructor need to determine when that is appropriate. In a lot of my situations on live training ranges with other instructors and students flying on the other end of the communication chain, it was not appropriate to let my student completely fail since that could be a detriment to the other students on the mission as well. You need to fully evaluate this possibility in your environment as an instructor.
The way we worked through this on the range, in real-time, was to have a separate, instructor-only network that allowed us to freely communicate about our student’s status while also communicating critical safety notes to each other throughout the mission. How can you do this? Think about all of the learners that are involved in your scenario. Is it just your student as in a simulation or a practical exercise with no other learner in it? If the answer is yes, absolutely let the guy go to failure.
Why is failure important? Because nothing helps you become more humble in your profession or in life than failure. How many times can you say that you have learned something from being correct all the time? I would imagine it is pretty low for everyone. Personally, my biggest learning moments are all linked to a failure of some sort. But we can talk more about that, and debriefs next week!
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