Confirming knowledge of skills

[True Believer]

How can I, as Scoutmaster, confirm that a Scout has truly learned a skill, needed for advancement, and signed off by an older scout? I don't do this during the Scoutmaster Conference, because that is not the time. When is the time?

 

The problem I am having is Scouts getting advancement, but when a particular skill is needed, it isn't there. For example, there was one time our SPL was trying to get the rope in our "rope bag" repaired. Only one Scout in twenty could remember how to whip a rope. This has been happening in all areas of scoutcraft, including first aid, etc.

 

I am told that they will learn it when they are called upon to teach younger scouts. Sometimes. But this is the exception to the rule. I read those Scoutmaster's handbooks from the 1940's and I am amazed at what those Scouts were doing.....

[nolesrule]

As the saying goes, use it or lose it.

 

The boys are only going to retain the knowledge by using it. They need to be given opportunities to apply the knowledge regularly, and as SM you can observe those opportunities. If they learn to tie a knot once, but don't have the opportunity to tie it again for months, they are not going to remember. Patrol skill competitions are invaluable in this regard.

 

Of course, you could always have the unit's policy changed such that they need to demonstrate it to you or one of the ASMs prior to it being signed off, but that won't change the fact that the boy will still forget the skill a few weeks down the road if they aren't using it.

[Mike F]

Common concern.

 

We're not supposed to re-test within SM Conf or BoR, but nothing prevents you from spot-checking to make sure your junior leaders are doing their job. Let the older scouts know you will be checking to make sure the guys they sign off know their stuff and you will hold them (the older scouts) responsible if they don't. Then look out that they don't go overboard and make it nearly impossible for the younger guys to advance.

 

Skill refreshers benefit everyone. Work within PLC to come up with lists of skills everyone needs to own, then figure out how to accomplish.

 

For this one, have Instructors give quick demo on whipping at a meeting and let all the guys tackle a frayed rope. Let them know there will be a whipping relay at the next troop meeting, then have a reward for the winners. After that, make sure there are a couple of packages of waxed dental tape (thick floss) in the rope bucket and pull it out immediately when a rope needs attention.

 

Use campouts to put the skills to work in activities and projects. Having trouble cutting that firewood? Here's a file and some gloves. Let me show you how much easier this can be with a few minutes of sharpening. Etc.

 

You can create a culture where they take pride in knowing the skills and are ready to demontrate them.

[shortridge]

Skills challenges and constant repetition are good ways to make sure the skills sink in. But teaching them just as isolated "skills" needed primarily for rank advancement won't get you very far in the long run.

 

The best way to get where you need to be is for the PLC to sit down and do a skills inventory - figure out where their patrol members are weakest. Then design a series of campouts and hikes where those skills are incorporated as part and parcel of the expedition in practical ways, not contrived contests for "points."

 

If they're weak on knots, they are given tarps instead of tents and told to rig up shelters. If it's firebuilding they need help with, they have to cook all their meals over an open fire, using one match to start. If it's first aid, hook up with a local paramedic, SAR team or ER nurse who can help create a frighteningly realistic rescue/first aid scenario for someone the Scouts encounter on a hike in a remote area. Totin' Chip? All their fires have to be prepared with split wood and fuzz sticks.

 

After they've gotten the skills down firmly, you can work on patrol competitions and "top of the heap" bragging rights to keep them up.

[Hal_Crawford]

Nothing refreshes a skill better than having to teach it. Make sure that your scouts know that every scout is an instructor. If you are teaching a skill to a bunch of new scouts have the older ones work one on one with them. Step back and be quality control.

[OldGreyEagle]

Confirmation of skills should be as easy as watching your scouts, the troops prgram, whether in meetings ot on events should have multiple opprotunities for scouts to demontrate their skills. Learning something that is never used does lend itself towards skill rentention

[Beavah]

Yah, good question True Believer.

 

I think this is a much harder problem than most realize, eh? I've never bought the whole "teach it to learn it" bit. Generally what that results in is a bunch of instructors with poor skills teachin' somethin' wrong. Just look at what often happens with young pseudo-MB instructors at a lot of camps, eh? Doesn't do a service to anybody. If yeh already have a lot of skill and experience, needin' to think through how to simplify and present what's most important to a beginner will further develop your expertise, but that's not what we're talkin' about with kids. Plus, it also takes time to learn how to teach. That too is a skill which must be developed. Yeh don't just dump kids into instructor roles without preparin' 'em by coaching their teachin' skills for a while.

 

Repetition and regular use definitely help, but in a bigger troop where yeh can't observe everyone all the time, it's also possible for the lads to repeat doin' things the wrong way. Or to repeat doin' things the lazy way. So that by itself won't do it either.

 

I would look to your troop culture when it comes to sign-offs. Are yeh really signin' kids off for proficiency? Meanin' that boys only get a signoff when they accomplish somethin' completely on their own, start to finish, without any help or prompting, and in the situation where it's needed?

 

For example, does a lad get a signoff for planning/preparing a meal the first time he plans/prepares a meal? Or the second? If so, yeh aren't signing off for proficiency, because nobody can become proficient after one or two tries. And if you're not followin' the BSA rules and signin' off for proficiency, of course the boys don't remember how to do it after a couple of months.

 

If that's where you're at and yeh want to change your troop culture, I think yeh lay out a 1-2 year plan. First, yeh set up your next troop TLT as at least a long-weekend campout followed by a series of once-a-month all day campouts. Your goal is to address da skills of your patrol leaders. If they aren't proficient themselves, then of course they're not goin' to be successful instructors. You demonstrate for them what proficiency means, and what a signoff should mean. Give 'em blank copies of the T-2-1 book pages and make 'em "earn" signoffs from you and your other adult leaders again as practice.

 

Once they've built their own proficiency, then yeh work with 'em on teachin' their patrol, and doin' signoffs. You start by helping 'em plan instruction and co-teachin' with them, then gettin' more hands-off as you see them able to handle it on their own. And you start by double-checking them on all signoffs and then gradually return the process to them as they become proficient at evaluating skills and holdin' their peers accountable.

 

Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Evaluate applies to instructin' and evaluatin' skills as much as camping skills, eh? Only when you've evaluated that they're OK to "solo" on instruction and skills signoffs should yeh give that to them. And because it took real work for them to earn that trust, they'll take it seriously when they teach and sign off their guys.

 

And for that 1-2 year stretch, yeh use some skills checks as part of the SM conference and some skills questions as part of da BOR, to help reinforce to the boys that their patrol leader is doin' 'em a good turn by making them properly prepared. Not just bein' "mean" or a hard-case on signoffs. Keep the feedback loop tight for the PLs at the beginnin'.

 

After a year or two, it will become part of troop culture, and the boys will take to enforcin' it on their own, with pride.

 

Beavah

 

[IM_Kathy]

my son has been in 2 troops...

 

the 1st troop we were in the older boys signed off and in using the knots as an example the boys would try and try again to tie the knot and as soon as they got it once "boom" it was signed.

 

our current troop the older boys do not sign off... they do work as instructors and guides and assist in teaching a skill to the boys. when they see that a boy has the skill down they tell them to go see mr/mrs adult leader and demonstrate their new skill and then get their book signed. If he makes a mistake then the adult will either send the boy back to the guides/instructors to work on it some more or the leader will help the boy to get it mastered.

 

I like the way our current troop does it... it allows the older boys to teach, but it makes the adults verify that the boy truely knows his stuff... and then when the boy goes up for SMC and BOR we can see that adult X signed it off and that he knows it. At BOR we will ask questions like who helped him learn the skill (we use this knowledge for use in the older boy's BOR), did he find it difficult to accomplish, do you know it well enough to teach another scout, and then when he says yes to that we'll suggest a boy that's still working on that skill for the boy to teach the skill. Then when that next boy comes to demonstrate and sign off we get a chance to see how well the boy did teach the skill.

[True Believer]

Good processes, IM Kathy. In my Troop, however, the adults will either be too lenient or too demanding...not much in between. And, I'd like to keep the adults out of the loop....

Once you let some of them in, they will never get out (of the way).

 

Bevah makes some excellent points. I like the long term, changing the troop culture approach. That is exactly the problem here. Things got lax over years; no teaching skills were taught, no accountability. This is going to take a little time and training. We have a number of older Scouts who are instructors. These guys, and the patrol leaders, need some counseling and experience. Time for a number of "Green Bar" outings.