NCJ Number
178817
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 47 Issue: 8 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 84-91
Date Published
August 1999
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article describes the use of the Adult Learning Model (ALM) in police training as it is being implemented in Canada and Maryland and shortly to be introduced in Florida.
Abstract
The ALM had its genesis at Canada's McMaster University Medical School and spread to all medical schools in Canada and eventually to U.S. medical schools. The ALM concept has many complex facets, but the basic premise involves a move away from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. In contrast to the traditional lecture-oriented approach used in law enforcement academies, under the ALM approach students are facilitated in their learning by training personnel. Referred to by some as Problem-based Police Training, problems and scenarios become the means through which students gain the knowledge and the skills to solve policing problems. Instructors serve as guides and facilitators, forcing students to solve problems much as active officers must do in the field. First implemented as a police training model in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), field-based RCMP coaches report that assessment scores have greatly increased for constable graduates under the ALM. A key RCMP teaching technique is role-playing, both in the classroom and in actual city streets as part of a mock detachment. Members of the community assist in the role-playing. The ALM is also being implemented in Maryland's Baltimore City Police Department, the Baltimore County Police Department, and the Prince George's County Police Department. Florida has also begun to introduce the ALM's scenario-based training. Information on contact persons is provided.