Purpose

The study compares the impact of two different pedagogical approaches in police training by assessing the knife defense performance of German police recruits against different types of knife attacks. Linear or nonlinear – which pedagogical approach leads to more efficient knife defense performance?

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 20 German state police recruits (w = 5, m = 15) were assigned to linear and nonlinear groups. The linear and nonlinear groups' performance on knife defense was assessed in a pretest, after a three-week training intervention in a posttest and eight weeks thereafter in a retention test, utilizing a mixed-method design (Sendall et al., 2018).

Findings

Quantitative data on knife defense performance suggest a lastingly better performance of the nonlinear group: in the retention test, participants of the nonlinear group were hit less (p = 0.029), solved the attack faster (p = 0.044) and more often (81.8%) than participants of the linear group (55.6%). In contrast, qualitative data reveal that, despite of evidence for a high level of perceived competence, the nonlinear teaching of knife defense skills has been accompanied by considerable uncertainties, affected by the lack of techniques and the focus on principles and operational parameters only.

Originality/value

It is the first study assessing the impact of different pedagogical approaches in police training. For the practice of police trainers, the results provide empirical orientations for an evidence-based planning of and reflection on pedagogical demands within their training (Mitchell and Lewis, 2017).

中文翻译：

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“一定有理想的解决方案……”新兵防刀性能训练方法评估

目的

该研究通过评估德国新兵针对不同类型刀具攻击的刀具防御性能，比较了两种不同教学方法在警察培训中的影响。线性还是非线性——哪种教学方法可以提高刀具防御性能？

设计/方法/方法

总共 20 名德国国家警察新兵（w  = 5，m  = 15）被分配到线性和非线性组。线性和非线性组在刀具防御方面的表现在前测中进行了评估，在后测中进行了三周的训练干预，随后在保留测试中进行了八周，使用混合方法设计（Sendall等人，2018 年）。

发现

刀防御性能的定量数据表明非线性组的表现持久更好：在保留测试中，非线性组的参与者被击中更少 ( p  = 0.029)，更快地解决攻击 ( p  = 0.044) 并且更频繁 (81.8%) ) 比线性组的参与者 (55.6%)。相比之下，定性数据显示，尽管有证据表明具有高水平的感知能力，但刀具防御技能的非线性教学伴随着相当大的不确定性，受技术缺乏和仅关注原则和操作参数的影响。

原创性/价值

这是第一项评估不同教学方法对警察培训的影响的研究。对于警察培训师的实践，结果为基于证据的培训规划和反思教学需求提供了经验指导（Mitchell 和 Lewis，2017 年）。