Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

7.1 Introduction

What post instructional debrief material aims to put in place

It is imperative that all instructors are capable of providing a comprehensive and impartial debrief to all trainees regardless of experience or ability. The aim is therefore to put a framework in place that lets instructors achieve this in every training environment they encounter. Post instructional debrief material looks at debrief techniques and skills in general (7.2 Role of an Instructor and 7.3 General Debrief Techniques) and then analyses the different debrief techniques and priorities for the three environments where instructors deliver post-session feedback:

  • Ground school scenarios for new joiners, recurrent (REC) days, command upgrade courses, and similar classroom-based training.
  • Synthetic flight training devices (the MFTD and the full-flight simulator), and in particular the knowledge of how to effectively run a LOFT facilitation debrief.
  • Flight duties (Line Flying Under Supervision; LFUS).

Each environment has its own constraints (audience composition in ground school, video and time limits in the simulator, flight-safety constraints in the air) and its own dominant debrief techniques. Post instructional debrief material sets out the general framework first, then walks through each environment in turn.

Training, not checking

The training-versus-checking distinction is the operational pivot of post instructional debrief material. A checking debrief reports performance against a standard and closes the case. A training debrief uses the trainee's performance as the substrate for further learning, and closes only when the trainee leaves with a clear path to improvement. The two activities use the same observations, in the same room, with the same trainee, but they are different jobs. The approved programme is unambiguous about which job the training organisation is doing.

The pre instructional brief (6.1 Introduction, especially the 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model and the 6.7 LOFT Briefing - Suggested Format and Contents) sets the contract with the trainees before the session runs. Post instructional debrief material closes the loop afterwards. The two are designed to be read together: the briefing structure in 6.1 Introduction is what makes the debrief structure in 7.1 Introduction possible, because a crew who arrives at the debrief without having been told that participation and self-analysis are expected will not produce the discussion the debrief depends on.

The depth of the facilitation discipline that underwrites the 7.4 Specific Debrief Scenarios and the 7.5 LOFT Debriefing - Introduction is not contained in post instructional debrief material; it lives in A1.1 Foreword and Introduction, the Flight Safety Foundation reproduction of NASA Technical Memorandum 112192 (McDonnell, Jobe, Dismukes 1997). 7.1 Introduction names the techniques (active listening, use of silence, the C-A-L model, the question patterns); A1.1 Foreword and Introduction supplies the worked treatment. Where post instructional debrief material compresses, A1.1 Foreword and Introduction expands; where post instructional debrief material is silent (the levels of facilitation, the criteria for effective crew participation, the troubleshooting strategies for an unresponsive crew), A1.1 Foreword and Introduction is load-bearing.

The 9-step EBT debrief sequence in A4.2.5 Conduct of Debriefing is the EBT-specific operationalisation of the post instructional debrief framework. Where 7.1 Introduction sets out the general technique, A4.2.5 Conduct of Debriefing prescribes the order of operations a recurrent EBT debrief follows.

Connections