Editor’s Note: This year’s What Firefighters Want in 2026 workforce survey is focused on training — not just how often firefighters are training, but whether that training is realistic, relevant and supported by leadership. Take the survey and share your thoughts!
We live in a time of unlimited access to information and finite attention — and this is a problem for anyone trying to teach a class of firefighters.
Of course, it’s not just with firefighters. These days, everyone’s attention is divided and distracted. But firefighters, by their nature, can be an especially challenging audience. They’re action-oriented. Impatient with anything that seems to waste their time. Sometimes judgmental about what others consider a priority. Given these conditions, what can an instructor do to improve the experience and outcomes?
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Attention is valuable
It is critical to accept that attention is finite. This is provable in any number of ways. We like to think we can multitask, but this is largely a myth. Sure, you can drive a car and listen to a podcast at the same time, as long as nothing unusual is happening on the drive. But have someone stop short in front of you or miss your exit, and the podcast content will be lost.
What people are really doing when they think they are multitasking is switching rapidly back and forth between focusing on different things. Some people can make this switch very quickly. Others, not so much. But in every case, something is lost.
Our attention is a marketable commodity. It always has been, ever since advertising was invented. But with the advent of smartphones, customized feeds and endless scrolling, we are faced with infinite ways others want to distract us and monopolize our limited attention.
For anyone who has taught a class in recent years, you know the effect. Within minutes, you look out into your audience and see people with their heads down, scrolling on their phones. People are distracted, disengaged. They may be good enough at content-switching to respond correctly to a question, but they are not 100% present. It’s demoralizing for instructors, and it makes any class less effective, no matter how important the content is.
This is the reality of the world we live in, but there are ways for instructors to be more effective and for classroom training to be more engaging. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Keep it short and on point. People have less attention span these days and will burn out if anything goes on too long. You see it everywhere — at concerts, in movie theaters — less than 30 minutes into the show, the phones light up. Design training that is more focused and ideally can be delivered in a 60–90-minute time frame. If more time is needed, provide a short break (no more than ten minutes) every hour. This same rule applies to meetings.
- Provide interactive elements in every training. Small group activities where the group must discuss a situation and come to a consensus decision work well. Groups of three to five people tend to work best.
- Don’t read from slides. I can’t believe I still have to say this, but I attended a class just last week where this was the presentation method. If you’re using PowerPoint or some other presentation software, design slides that complement your presentation rather than encapsule it. Use clear fonts, limit text, and use graphics that add to the material rather than distract from it. And don’t turn around and read from the screen!
- Use multimedia, to a point. There are endless videos out there on the internet that you can easily link to in a presentation. They can add energy and depth to a class. But make sure any video source you add is clear and salient to the course content, and not too long. Also make sure that your links to those videos actually work.
- Keep classroom size manageable. It’s hard to make eye contact with a group of more than 20-25 people. Any larger group than that, and you will have people disappearing in the back row, playing Call of Duty on their phones.
- Talk about what matters. Don’t just give the same pitch on the same topic as you did last year. What questions do people have about the subject? What specific issues have arisen related to fire inspection or personnel management or patient care? Real case studies, from your own or other departments, can be very useful in this regard.
- Consider phone-free training sessions. This is hard but it can be done. Several states and local jurisdictions have banned phones in schools, and early results are positive for focus and content retention when phones are not readily available.
Final thoughts
Teaching firefighters in a classroom has never been an easy proposition. By their nature, firefighters want to move, to do something, and sitting at a desk has never been their best thing. Combine that restlessness with infinite distractions and teaching a class can seem like an exercise in futility. Still, some topics require a classroom element, and with good planning, better outcomes can be achieved.
