Theory of Andragogy Applied to Louisiana Peace Officer Standards Training

Abstract

Training is an essential tool in the process of facilitating change within law enforcement organizations; the methods that law enforcement instructors use to teach subjects are of equal importance. To meet the unprecedented challenges that America’s police face in the 21st century, it validates the importance of law enforcement training which this research assesses the differences following the application of behavioral training methods for new law enforcement recruits and andragogical training methods outlined by Malcolm Knowles. Louisiana’s implementation of andragogical instructional methodology, utilizing Knowles’ assumptions, necessitates a determination of whether benefits have been realized and if so, an assessment of those benefits is what this research set out to accomplish. Due to the legislative requirement that officers must obtain POST certification within the first year of employment, agencies not geographically located near Baton Rouge, Louisiana faced significant challenges. Therefore, elected officials worked to find solutions to these challenges resulting in the creation of regional POST academies throughout Louisiana. This quantitative research study evaluated the effects of andragogical methodologies on the Louisiana POST basic level 1 comprehensive examination mean scores within the southwest, northwest, and southeast regions of Louisiana, of which, officers must score 70% or higher on the examination. This research is unique and is being utilized in Louisiana as a pilot program in law enforcement trainings and is gaining traction across the nation as the successes of the program throughout the state of Louisiana are leading the nation in implementing a successful officer training program