On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:01:35 -0000, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

I audited an NRA handgun safety course Saturday that my wife was
attending for her concealed permit.

I was appalled. The instructor was a really nice fellow, and obviously
an experienced shooter, but his course was inadequate to the nth degree.

snip details
LLoyd
===============
long response follows --

While complicated by a governmental bureaucracy containing many
fanatical anti-gun functionaries, who in many cases had
"concealed carry" pounded up their nose by voter initiative, and
thus would be glad for the entire "armed citizen" program to
fail, this is unfortunately not a unique situation, but normal
for any subject involving motor skills, ethical considerations,
legal concerns, and personal motivation. Another example is
driving, and of course machine tool operation.

What this example shows is that even an "expert" may be a poor
teacher for a novice group although they may be a good roll
model/mentor for more experienced individual learner(s).

This is compounded by the tendency to teach the way we were
taught, even though the circumstances may be entirely different
(e.g. level of knowledge of students), and substantial progress
may have been made in training aids. The existing level of
skills and knowledge (and attitude) may be critical, for example,
when an "expert" who grew up in the country, teaches a firearms
class to a group composed mainly of second or third generation
inner-city urban residents.

There is also considerable differences in the type of learning.
In the traditional method of observation and imitation (which by
the way most of our skills and knowledge that we use are still
acquired) skills, and to a small degree knowledge, are mainly
transmitted tacitly and subliminally.

By contrast, in a formal learning situation, such as the
concealed carry class, disjointed knowledge "nuggets" are
stressed, with some skills, as explicit items, which the student
is expected to practice (on their own time) until these become
internalized to the extent they don't have to think [too much]
about them. This is like driver education, where the new student
may indeed get their drivers' license, but it will be several
YEARS before they become an expert driver, for example
automatically steering in the direction of a skid to regain
control.

IMNSHO there is no magic bullet or panacea for this instructional
problem. The only thing that occurs as the "solutions" are
cycled through is to change the undesirable results.

I can offer some suggestions.

This appears to be a good opportunity for "outcomes" or
"competency" analysis, in that certain identifiable skills exist.
This is by no means a simple or easy process, and the complete
list may include 100 or more specific skills/competencies.
Indeed, it may require multiple experts in several areas
including firearms, ethics, and law to [adequately] perform.

If you are curious about this approach click on
http://www.reproline.jhu.edu/english...ng/cbt/cbt.htm
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Mar_04/article02.htm
http://www.pro-ductivity.com/LMS/Competency/index.htm


Or google on "competency based" course-development for 28,400
hits and
"outcomes based" course-development for 11,600 hits.

Much of this is based on Bloom's taxonomy, which was developed
using a DoD/DARPA grant. For an explication of this bit of
educationspeak click on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonom...nal_Objectives
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/progra...uts/bloom.html

The major defect is that every organization and instructor wants
to develop their own set of competencies/objectives. This is
compounded by instructional "drift" as the teacher becomes bored,
forgets what has been covered, etc.

It can also be a paper work nightmare to track item presentations
and student attainments.

I suggest that the state develop a competency list, possibly
using the fees they have collected over the years, and then
developing instructional VCR/DVD to cover each of the items. For
example, a 20 to 30 minutes segment covering sight pictures for
several different firearms in daylight, night sights, and laser
sights, stressing combat, not target situations.

FWIW - this appears to be an ideal project for the NRA for the
firearms related content. The ABA needs to step up and do their
fair share on the legal aspects. Much of it can be done
collectively over the internet, possibly using the Wikipedia
methodology. Most will be common from state to state with only
slight variation in the legal aspects.


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
============
Merchants have no country.
The mere spot they stand on
does not constitute so strong an attachment
as that from which they draw their gains.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),
U.S. president. Letter, 17 March 1814.