A training style for occupational health and safety

Comments received about OSHA (Aust) training have included:

•  we were lead, in easily managed steps, through some seemingly difficult concepts

•  just the kind of ideas we needed to address at this stage of our development

• we were highly active and involved

•  we had plenty of opportunity to explore our own interests and needs

• possibly the best course I have ever attended (from a school teacher!)

•  I will recommend that others in the organisation do the course

•  I learned a great deal.  As a result two other managers are being sent on the course

• my knowledge of OHS was very narrow before attending the course

• the gradual build-up from the simple picture was very well developed - congratulations

• a better understanding of what to do and how to do it; a very enjoyable and worthwhile course

• very professional approach to all areas covered - very easy to comprehend the information given to us - enjoyed the personal feedback and communications/participation of small groups

• I came to the course, having just been handed the OHS job, totally bewildered by the prospect.  At the conclusion of the course, I feel very confident of being able to handle the new position

• we had fun - and we learnt a lot.

However, effective training does not just happen.  As with all OHS/HR and risk management activities, there is a solid theoretical foundation to the activities, skills and systems developed in organisations.

OSHA (Aust) training strategies draw from the continuum of education models ranging from teacher centred to learner centred;

1.         The exposition model (largely teacher centred and based on whole group
            teaching)

2.         The behavioural model (where learning is broken down into easily
            digestible steps)

3.         The cognitive developmental model (where learners use reasoning
            to solve problems related to their age and stage of life)

4.         The interaction model (learner centred and requires interaction with
            the external environment)

5.         The transaction model (focusing on self-directed learning with adults
            interacting with their environment in an attempt to satisfy the interests
            and needs of the particular individual or group).

 All models are valuable.  Strategies are adopted depending on the topic, objectives, preferences, situation and maturity of learners.  By adopting a range of teaching techniques, we avoid overuse of particular models and their underlying deficiencies.  For example, over reliance on the traditional exposition model reflects the following underlying values and attitudes:

- content is often more important than process

- knowledge is more important than skill development or attitudinal change.

Our concern at OSHA is not that learners have their minds filled with knowledge but how much effective action will take place as a result of this knowledge.  During our courses, we invite people to challenge the usefulness or validity of material being presented, without fearing ridicule or of being seen as being stupid.  Whereas some trainers operating out of the "expert" "up-front" role are often defensive when questions on topics or ideas fall outside their instructors manual, we recognise that life experiences of adults, together with individual differences related to the needs of learners, are all important.  In OSHA training, we do not sheep-dip people in knowledge whether they need it or not.

Whilst all teachers need the skill of exposition, over emphasis of its use in training situations often feeds boredom and can support notions of expertness, reinforcing the idea of hierarchy and the dependency on authority figures, to tell us what we should know about what is right and good for us. 

OSHA trainers use a wide range of behavioural techniques to accommodate adult learning factors and help shape learners behaviour.  Such techniques are shown in our capacity to write and distinguish between behavioural and non-behavioural objectives, so that the trainer and learner share understood directions and end points.

In the cognitive developmental model, problem solving and decision making models are useful tools for case studies and role-plays.  These activities become more significant in organisational settings as they are applied to real organisational problems.  This technique is particularly appropriate where no current solutions exist to problems, but trainers are helping others to find the solutions.

Occupational health and safety initiatives are an aspect of organisational change.  Organisational change itself operates in, and arises out of, a climate of uncertainty.  It is in this climate that the teacher helps provide models of decision making and problem solving that assist organisational players to acquire and process the information they need to bring about the changes they desire.

When applying problem solving and decision making models to real problems, real people trainees are forced to examine the courses of action open to them, as well as being required to think through the implications of their actions.  Often, members of organisations have no trouble telling us their problems:  however they are a little light on in deciding what to do about the problems.

By use of the interaction model, we encourage people to learn as much from each other as from the course leader.  This involves the instructor watching how the group works in terms of task and process.  Extensive use is made of experiential learning and structured experiences.  This approach to teaching asks learners to undertake experiences, the specific consequences of which we find do not seem to disappear after the completion of the training session.  We try and avoid the frustration arising when case studies and role-plays do not achieve the individual, group or organisational change expected.  Important teaching skills involved here are climate setting, acceptance of the group and the individual, empathic understanding, trusting and reporting of feelings, confrontation and feedback, self disclosure, trusting the group, and no behaviour interpretation.

In an effort to facilitate self-directed learning, via the transaction model, we also attempt to establish the learner as the prime focus.  The interests and needs of the learner are paramount, with the teacher providing a resource rich environment enabling the learner to grapple with the self-discipline and freedom of learning involved in "how to learn".  Unfortunately, these techniques often have their detractors who claim that learners have no real sense of direction, that valuable learning time is wasted, and that the learners would be better off back at work than being at a course that seems so devoid of structure and content.  Yet as trainers, we are attempting to provide a resource rich environment where adults can learn what they intend to learn as opposed to what we want them to learn.  We attempt to help them define objectives related to their needs and to point them in the direction they want to go.

We encourage active searching of the learning environment, respond to those learning needs which the learner discovers for himself/herself, and encourage people to work in what ever social grouping and setting is comfortable to them.  This supportive and co-operative approach helps the learner focus on his/her needs and objectives.

Learning starts with the learner, not the content.  Learning how to learn is as important as what the learner learns.

Evaluation is mutually negotiated rather than imposed by the teacher.  Often evaluation is considered by the learner to be to difficult or irrelevant to the learning process.  Often, in the short term, learners do not know what it is that they have learned.