“From Top to Toe”: Choosing the Appropriate Training Method

Abstract

Education is an investment in the future. An investment is only good if it pays off, and education is only effective if the resources used to result in the necessary increase in knowledge and competence. It is easy to make the mistake of investing less energy than necessary in choosing the appropriate training methods, which ultimately fails to have the desired impact. It is especially important in professions where theoretical knowledge must be converted into practice, such as in national security activity. The present study proposes a method to help adult education providers assess the depth of training methods that need to be deployed to achieve a given type of training outcome to avoid wasting money and energy on training. The essence of the idea is that a form of training can only be truly successful if it works through all the physical and psychological processes that are relevant to the actual manifestation of the knowledge, skills and competencies to be acquired. In this paper, I will review which nervous system levels may be involved in information processing and which training methods can be used to involve them in the learning process.