A study of skill acquisition the Illinois fire service

Abstract

When dealing with the development of skills in the fire service, there are concerns for the time required to teach the necessary skills, the type and amount of resources involved in teaching the skills, and that the skills can be performed under combat conditions. In the fire service, knots are extensively used in rescue operations. Firefighters have to be able to perform knot-tying under stress conditions. In this study, firefighters were taught to tie five knots. They varied in complexity, from the clove hitch in the middle to the rescue knot. They were taught the bowline, becket bend, clove hitch-middle, clove hitch-end, and the rescue knot.

In this study, practice time was differentially allocated to each of three different groups: 1 hour, 1.5 hours, and 3 hours. Regardless of how the time was distributed, all groups received three hours of instruction and practice. Evaluations of the firefighters' ability to tie the knots were conducted 48 hours after the last practice session.

The findings of the study indicated that no one type of practice distribution pattern was superior to the others in teaching the knot-tying skills. There is no apparent performance gain or loss that is linked to the various practice distribution patterns.