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by Gwynn M. Powell, Ph.D.
How can you begin the process of planning for staff training next summer
while building a core of returning staff who are moving forward with you?
How can beginning this process now have an effect on your staff selection
practices? The process of designing and implementing staff training is
a process of making choices. What will be included and when? How much
time will you allot? What form will you choose to impart the information?
Reflect upon last year . . . what process did you use to answer those
questions? What can be done to broaden the foundation of information used
to make those decisions?
Background
Staff members arrive at camp with a set of beliefs, attitudes, knowledge,
and skills. Once on-site, a precamp orientation is provided, but the outcomes
are rarely formally assessed. The content and methods vary greatly because
they are primarily functions of the director’s personal experiences, training,
and judgment. After the formal staff orientation, staff begin work and
apply their skills while “unlearning” and “relearning” information based
upon interactions with both peers and campers. Thus, traditions passed
on through informal and incidental learning appear to modify learning
acquired during formal staff orientation. In spite of the positive role
that training can play in providing a safety net for campers and staff,
little is known about the process camp directors use to develop staff
training or the essential components of the training. Educational research
has identified links between teacher effectiveness and student outcomes
(Cooper, 1983) and a relationship between coaching education and coaching
efficacy (Malete & Feltz, 2000). Given the parallels between teachers
and students, coaches and players, camp counselors and campers, it is
important to think about the process of staff orientation and training.
Where Should Directors Begin When Planning Staff Training?
When answering this question, the most common response is “with last
year’s schedule.” While the schedule may or may not contain the best direction
for the upcoming season, the challenge is to begin with the decision-making
process in order to clarify teaching topics and facilitation during staff
orientation. Additionally, the challenge is to conceptualize the vision
beyond the orientation period to include ongoing training throughout the
season and year.
What Does Your Staff Need to Know and Be Able to Do to
Be Effective?
One framework with which to begin is to think about the skills and knowledge
that you expect your staff members to have in order to effectively accomplish
the goals and mission of your program. There are several steps you can
take to begin answering these questions: examine existing documents, talk
with the experts, use available resources, and project the future.
- Examine your job descriptions, performance-review tools, and past
incident and accident reports. Many of the skills you value will be
spelled out plainly in these documents as well as points of stress and
under-performance from past staff members.
- Talk with the experts . . .your former staff members and supervisors,
both the stellar ones and those you would rather forget! Each group
will have a unique perspective about what they wish they had known,
what they felt was too much information in a short period of time, and
what they felt they already knew. Insuring involvement from potential
returning staff just might be the factor that convinces them to come
back for another summer.
- Gather your available resources . . . look at the American Camping
Association Standards, outlines available in the text of the Basic Camp
Directors’ Course (Basic Camp Management), and workshops at regional
and national conferences. The collective information of the “industry”
can provide you with a new lens through which to view the information
gathered as it applies to your own camp materials.
- Project the future . . . if you could assemble your strongest staff
ever, what would that profile be? Taking all this information into account
and using the team of individuals you have involved in this process,
create a draft of the specific skills and knowledge you feel your staff
needs to accomplish the job effectively. This list is one that can constantly
be updated and changed and then serve as a springboard for future discussions.
The conscious decision-making process
Once you have generated this list, it can serve as a template and outline
for your decision-making process. Begin by simply categorizing the items
by expectations for mastery. Look at each of the items carefully. Is it
something they could come to camp already knowing? Is it something that
is tough to understand until one has tried it? Is it something specific
to your camp that, unless they are returning, needs to be communicated?
Is it something that one can never fully master, so in-service training
would be helpful? Is it something everyone in camp needs to know or only
a subset of specialists? Is it something that is helpful, but not necessary,
so could wait until the first staff meeting? With this categorized list
as a baseline, the decision-making process can become more thorough. This
tool will serve as an asset to make conscious decisions rather than ones
based only on scheduling or tradition.
What Do You Expect Staff to Know and Be Able to Do When
They Arrive at Camp?
Use this outline of skills and knowledge as a tool during the interview
process to ask questions to determine what skills and knowledge the individual
already has prior to coming to camp. If specific individuals need some
extra attention in an area, are there resources available to help them
prepare before they arrive (i.e., take first aid/CPR at the local affiliate;
participate in the on-line course “Camp is for the Camper” available through
ACA; meet with a former staff or alumnus to understand more the philosophy
of your program; etc.)? Can you identify an individual with exceptional
skills and ask him or her ahead of time to prepare a specific training
module for the orientation or in-service training? During the interview
process or pre-arrival phase, you might want to have staff complete a
questionnaire asking them to express the areas they feel more confident
in and those where they feel the need for more help. The bottom line of
this step is to articulate the baseline expectation you have for staff
arriving on site and then begin to develop a plan for how to improve those
who are below expectations while still challenging those who are above
expectations.
What do you expect to teach them?
The categorized skills, with content that is specific to your camp and
needs to be communicated, should be a priority in your planning. The question
then becomes how to impart the information. In addition to the “formal”
training sessions, there is a layer of informal learning occurring at
the same time, simply by the nature of the summer-camp experience. The
camp program often emphasizes counseling and instructional skills that
build upon previously gained life experiences. These skills can be as
complex as interpersonal communication skills or as simple as helpful
hints, such as the best way to bait a hook that was learned as a child
from a grandparent.
Additionally, staff member interaction will most likely be high because
of the nature of the community and generally magnified by the unique setting.
Exposure to novel settings leads to greater reliance on peers who have
experience in that type of setting (Slater, 1984). If you are thinking
of training as simply a schedule of sessions, you are missing an opportunity
to guide the informal process and use it in ways to support the learning
goals. Challenge your key leaders and returning staff now to brainstorm
ways — specific to your camp and in keeping with your goals and philosophy
— to impart the information in creative and meaningful ways.
What do you expect them to learn on the job?
Those skills categorized as difficult to master hold the potential for
exploration all season long. And the most basic skills can serve as a
foundation on which to build in both formal and informal ways. For example,
dealing with a homesick child and aiding conflict resolution are two skills
reported by staff as ones where learning was modified during the experience
of trying to manage these situations on the job (Powell, 2001). Therefore,
after an introduction during staff orientation and some hands-on experience
in the first week or two, staff members will have a better context and
foundation for assimilating the information. This zone of readiness is
generally tied with greater internal motivation to learn and experiment
with the new knowledge (Vygotsky, 1978). The in-service training could
take place in small learning groups facilitated by peers or supervisors
during camp sessions or in large groups in a variety of formats in-between
camp sessions. The climate of continuous learning can be reinforced through
peer feedback and supervisory conferences. As strengths and areas of improvement
are identified, opportunities to both share and learn are natural follow-ups
that can build the community and learning atmosphere.
Back to the Schedule
Now it is time to review last year’s schedule. You may be pleasantly
surprised when you re-examine the schedule, or you may need to re-align
and start with a blank page. Regardless of the judgment, by utilizing
these steps, you will have a different perspective and a core of staff
who will have thought about staff training in a different way. After implementation
this year, the planning can begin anew for next year by talking with new
and returning staff during their first two or three weeks of work and
asking questions similar to those presented in this article. In addition,
the job descriptions and performance review tools can be updated annually
to reflect the growth of the body of knowledge created during this examination
and planning process.
References
Cooper, J. M. (1983). Basic Elements in Teacher Education Program Development:
Implications for Future Research and Development. In K. R. Howery &
W. E. Gardner (Eds.), The Education of Teachers (pp. 211). New York: Longman.
Malete, L., & Feltz, D. L. (2000). The effect of a coaching education
program on coaching efficacy. The Sport Psychologist, 14, 410-417.
Powell, G. M. (2001). Seasonal staff member perceptions of the learning
process in summer camp staff training. Unpublished dissertation, Clemson
University, Clemson, SC.
Slater, T. (1984). The temporary community: Organized camping for urban
society. Sutherland, Australia: Albatross.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Originally published in the 2002 November/December
issue of Camping Magazine.
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