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Learning in the Firehouse (Link)
By Edward A. Tracey
Fire Engineering, December 2021
Fire department officers and fire service educators need to incorporate and report informal learning activities as ways in which firefighters learn their trade.
How do firefighters learn at work? Or, better yet, how do firefighter learn in the firehouse? The initial reaction to these questions may seem like an easy answer; conventional thinking would say, “Through training.” This article highlights the relationship between two aspects of training in the fire service: formal and informal firefighter learning practices. Specifically, it reports on how firefighters learn in the firehouse and identifies activities that firefighters use to learn informally before providing both practical and policy implications for fire officers and fire training program managers. The considerations in this article are applicable to the on-duty, career firefighter as well as the volunteer firefighter hanging out in the firehouse.