posted on 2009-02-17, 16:10authored byRobert F. Vodde
The principle mission of policing in the United States, unchanged since its inception, serves to
maintain social order and control. As society continues to grow, mature, and evolve, so too
has the complexity of fulfilling this mission. Because today’s sophisticated, fast-paced, and
ever-changing society continues to experience unprecedented social, cultural, legal, political,
economic, and technological changes, the expectations of its police have grown exponentially.
With recruitment, the training of new police officers has broad implications for their ability to
meet new and changing duties and responsibilities.
While a traditional, pedagogical, military model of training may have at one time served the
needs and interests of police and society, its applicability and efficacy has been called into
question. It is theorized that an andragogical (adult based) instructional methodology will
serve as a more effective means for training police recruits.
Andragogy, rooted in the belief that adults learn differently than children, bases its practices
on the needs, interests, readiness, orientation, experience, and motivation of the adult learner.
Considering these needs, andragogy focuses on facilitating a holistic, integrative, and
collaborative approach to learning that places a strong emphasis on experiential learning.
While anecdotal data suggests that andragogy yields greater outcomes in learning and
competencies when compared to a traditional, pedagogical, military model, the absence of
empirical data served as an impetus to this study which revealed that an andragogical
instructional methodology was more effective.