Cadets who are certified but don't know what they are doing.

[Panzerbjorn]

These three images should be burned into your brain as it's what all learning is built upon.  It would also explain the 'clueless'-ness of those cadets if they haven't used the skills for a while.  What's more likely going on is that they're still in the rote learning phase, where they've been told how to do something, and that's what they know how to do it.  They haven't made the connections of when to use those skills or how to transfer those skills to other tasks or missions.

When you teach, remember the three core things you're trying to convey while teaching...

WHAT are you teaching.
WHY it's important.
HOW it's done.

When those connections are made, then the cadets can start understanding how to use the SAR skills they've been taught.

Hope that helps.

[SarDragon]

These three images should be burned into your brain as it's what all learning is built upon. It would also explain the 'clueless'-ness of those cadets if they haven't used the skills for a while.  What's more likely going on is that they're still in the rote learning phase, where they've been told how to do something, and that's what they know how to do it.  They haven't made the connections of when to use those skills or how to transfer those skills to other tasks or missions.

When you teach, remember the three core things you're trying to convey while teaching...

WHAT are you teaching.
WHY it's important.
HOW it's done.

When those connections are made, then the cadets can start understanding how to use the SAR skills they've been taught.

Hope that helps.

Abso-freakin-lutely!

Thus endeth the first day of instructor training. We spent all of Monday afternoon discussing exactly the information in the images above.

The next thing we learned was the three part method -

Tell 'em what you are going to teach 'em.
Teach the material.
Tell 'em what you just taught 'em.

Reinforcement is what it's all about.

There is also a distinction between Training a person and Evaluating a person.  Anybody can train anybody.  They can even train themselves.  [other stuff redacted]

Strongly disagree. See Law of Primacy above. If the trainer doesn't understand this, or hasn't been taught how to instruct, the result(s) can be way short of what you want.

If you want some further info (beware, it's a bit dry), download the Air Force Instructors Guide, AFM 36-2236 . Chapter 13 is the one most applicable to what the average CAP instructor needs. This represents eight weeks of course material in the military - four weeks to learn how to instruct and do basic curriculum development, and four weeks of advanced curriculum development.

[JC004]

I've had some positively awful instructors in CAP (and elsewhere), and some phenomenal instructors.  There's huge differences.  You can be in situations in which you can't hear the instructor, they move too quickly through material, they assume you know certain things (thus skipping essentials that tie things together), they use the wrong instructional method, etc., etc.  There's huge differences.

One problem is when CAP people teach a task at the basic Knowledge level of learning, then get signed off immediately.  An ES task is at the much higher Application through Evaluation levels of learning (in most cases).  If you are signing someone off for pointing the compass in the right direction at your direct instruction during a class, that is NOT a task completion and it is NOT learning. 

[Phil Hirons, Jr.]

At first glance I thought this was some sort of latrine teaching aid.

If you have a SM who likes working with wood, sucker them into making one of these for you:

[TheSkyHornet]

I'm still looking for those chemlight batteries

[JC004]

This should substitute    - http://www.kriana.com/aa-krill-lights

[TheSkyHornet]

This should substitute    - http://www.kriana.com/aa-krill-lights

Aw, sweet! 

Now could you help me figure out why this exhaust air sample keeps coming up "contaminated." First Saarnt won't accept it unless it's clean