Abstract
The current study explored police trainers’ perceptions of their actual and preferred methods of acquiring new coaching knowledge; the types of knowledge they currently require and/or desire; and how they apply new knowledge. A total of 163 police trainers from Germany and Austria participated in the study. The responses were analysed using an inductive approach. The results showed that police trainers thought they needed knowledge of pedagogy, policing, and self-development, with reasons being centred around a need to optimise learning, training content and the engagement of learners within the training sessions. Preferred methods of learning focused predominantly around informal and non-formal opportunities, the reasons for which were social interaction, the reality-based focus of the content and the perceived quality. Finally, police trainers identified technical or tactical policing knowledge, or knowledge specific to the delivery of police training as useful, recently acquired coaching knowledge, mainly because it was perceived to have direct application to their working practices. Based on these findings, it is suggested police trainers are in need of context-specific knowledge and support to develop the declarative knowledge structures that afford critical reflection of new information.
Highlights
In most police departments, institutions, academies and agencies, police training is considered an essential training setting for recruits and sworn officers to develop and refine their practical front-line skills, such as self-defence and arrest skills, firearms, tactical skills and communication (Staller M. and Körner, 2019b; Isaieva, 2019), in order to safely and effectively cope with operational and conflictual scenarios that are a regularly part of police work (Ellrich and Baier, 2016)
The synthesis of the results indicate that police trainers are in need of knowledge structures that allow for reflection, especially when they come in contact with new information
The current study focused on coaching knowledge in police training
Summary
Institutions, academies and agencies, police training is considered an essential training setting for recruits and sworn officers to develop and refine their practical front-line skills, such as self-defence and arrest skills, firearms, tactical skills and communication (Staller M. and Körner, 2019b; Isaieva, 2019), in order to safely and effectively cope with operational and conflictual scenarios that are a regularly part of police work (Ellrich and Baier, 2016) Within this context—sometimes referred to as police use of force or conflict management training—the police trainer facilitates the development of recruits through the achievement of learning outcomes (Birzer, 2003; Cushion, 2020; Staller et al, 2021b).
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