The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) developed Learning Domain 42 as a training standard for the delivery of cultural diversity curriculum. This paper reviews the current approaches used to train California Law Enforcement Personnel in the areas of diversity and hate crimes. The discussion includes the development of LD 42, instructional technology and design, and specific active learning strategies that help create learning environments that aid in a personal understanding of cultural diversity.

"Technology, is a set of rational procedures…not a collection of machines and devices, but is a way of thinking and acting" (Muffoletto, 1994, p. 25). Knirk and Gustafson (1986) noted that the technology of instruction uses hardware, learning theories, and procedures for structuring the learning environment to achieve desired outcomes. Astin as cited in Gardiner (1994) proposed that "we should pay much more attention to the way the curriculum is presented and how students interact with it" if desired results are to be met (p. 34). Much of the achievement of these desired results is the product of the technology of instructional design. The focus of this paper is the instructional design of a program that drives diversity training for California law enforcement. This program is designated by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) as Learning Domain 42 (LD 42). Learning Domain 42 is best understood within the context of the POST organization.

POST serves 557 law enforcement agencies that employ a total of 75,600 full-time peace officers, 8,200 peace officer reserves, and 6,400 public safety dispatchers (Myyra, 1998). A governing board administers POST, and their responsibilities include the standardization of law enforcement training, and creation of minimum standards of service to the citizens of California. Funding from criminal and traffic fines provides the resources for POST to set hiring standards, officer training, leadership development, management counseling, financial assistance to support training, and statistical information for law enforcement.

An important responsibility of the Commission is to set the minimum hours of training for recruits in basic police academies. Training hours in basic academies have increased over the years to a minimum of 664, with some agency-affiliated academies requiring as many as 1000. In addition to the pre-hiring requirement of basic POST certification, every sworn peace officer must complete 24 hours of advanced training every two years.

POST promotes the use of interactive approaches to train California law enforcement officers. Through the use of instructional system designs, multi-media resources, and skill training for trainers POST has sponsored excellent training programs on a variety of topics.

There are over 4000 courses certified by POST, 150 of these are based upon human relations training. Training mandates for POST courses are often influenced by societal issues and concerns for "safer streets", and come to bear either implicitly through political pressure or directly by legislative action. One direct influence was California Senate Bill 2680, Boatwright (California Senate, 1990). SB 2680 is a cultural and ethnic diversity awareness educational mandate for the POST system. The mandate required that POST create a training and implementation system that allows local law enforcement agencies to structure their cultural awareness programs based upon local needs.

In response to SB 2680 POST initiated training for Cultural Awareness Facilitators (CAF) from each local agency. Included are guidelines for Community Mentor Committees and training guidelines for topics and curriculum to be delivered to in-service and civilian employees of law enforcement agencies. An additional component of cultural awareness training is the result of Assembly Bill 401, Epple, and includes curriculum on cultural diversity for the basic academy (California Assembly, 1993). The LD 42 curriculum for the basic academy includes the following topics with emphasis on Section VI, Strategies for Effective Cultural Contacts:

After the curriculum was developed and approved, the Training and Delivery Section of POST believed that effective presentation of this curriculum in the 38 basic academies throughout the state required that instructors have training in diversity subjects and issues and instructional presentation techniques. A Train-the-Trainers committee was formed to develop workshops designed to train instructors to present LD 42 in the classroom.

The Train-the-Trainers committee developed a curriculum that includes five components to enhance instructor effectiveness for the cultural diversity curriculum, including:

1. Self-assessment around issues of culture.
2. Learning Objectives of LD 42, including supporting materials and resources.
3. Adult education and instructional design.
4. Group facilitation skills.
5. Practice and feedback techniques and evaluation of learning components.

Instructors were encouraged to use this training to develop the cultural diversity curriculum for their basic academies and in-service advanced courses. Since 1993, the minimum hours of cultural diversity training in the police academies has increased from 16 to 24 hours. In addition, many academies have voluntarily increased that number to 40.

POST continued the development and implementation of new diversity training programs over the past eight years. Some of these courses are:

In addition to classroom-based courses, POST is very active in telecourse development. These telecourses are transmitted by satellite and can be down-linked at all agencies and academies. The telecourses are designed to provide the most current information with scenario-based discussions. The advantage of telecourses is that they can be recorded for later presentation according to the training schedules of each agency.

Many telecourses were developed to enhance diversity education for law enforcement. Telecourses addressing Hate Crimes, Law Enforcement Ethics, Cultural Awareness, Sexual Harassment, Community Oriented Policing, Managing Contacts with Developmentally Disabled or Mentally Ill, and Law Enforcement Awareness of Disabilities were available to download at all training sites throughout California. The video scenarios in these telecourses provide opportunities for group discussion. This helps promote the development of good decision-making processes that consider issues related to diversity.

The most recent addition to the POST Cultural Diversity Training is the Law Enforcement Tools for Tolerance program, developed through the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California. The Tools for Tolerance program is available to participants in the Cultural Diversity Train-the-Trainers course, all police academy cadets, and all law enforcement agencies. The Museum of Tolerance is a hands-on, experiential museum utilizing two principal themes: the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America, and the history of the Holocaust. The use of interactive videos, exhibits, and computers creates a unique experience for students. Museum presentations include discussions on hate crimes, valuing differences, and conflict resolution in the workplace. Facilitated small group discussions focus on cross-cultural communication issues that might occur between officers and the communities they serve. Over the last two years, the Museum of Tolerance provided this program to 17,000 law enforcement officers and 4,000 law enforcement support personnel.

Evaluation of the Tools for Tolerance program is currently underway. The Center for Community Research at the American Institute for Research is expected to complete that evaluation in the coming months. The summative evaluation of a sample of subjects that have participated in the training over the past two years will be a guideline for future law enforcement programs with the museum.

Technology has changed our approach to the presentation of content through the use of resources such as PowerPointÒ , LCD projectors, interactive CD-ROMS, telecourses, and videos. The instructional system design continues to drive the curriculum. Without a solid, systematic instructional design, the use of technology would be the proverbial "tail that wags the dog" approach to education. "High-tech" devices are useful educational tools, however, they are only one part of the resources available to instructors. Instructional design drives the resources.

Incorporating an instructional design system as part of the instructor’s academic planning provides a road map for meeting instructional objectives. When instructors and students understand and accept active learning as a part of both the instructional system and the educational journey, then the academic experience will be enriched for all parties. Active processing also must be an important part of the curriculum development when designing technology-based classes. Chickering and Gamson as cited in Bonwell and Eison (1991) describe the need for active processing by the learner.

Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves (Bonwell & Eison, p. 3).

In the instructional design process, presenters must consider using an active learning approach. If students are active participants in the learning environment, they will retain more information. Instruction for active learners should include a variety of materials to complement the abilities of the learners. Examples of materials that could be used include question and answer sessions, role play, small group interaction, and visual aids. Providing different tools and alternative techniques for the presentation of material to students, and evaluating the effectiveness of these methods, is best accomplished through instructional technology (Gagne, Briggs, Wager, 1992; Knirk & Gustafson, 1986). Whether or not the plan includes technology devices, the curriculum design must be based on the above principles to insure the retention and transfer of new learning.

In developing the cultural diversity curriculum for law enforcement, the questions concerning desired outcomes were, "What do we want officers to know about culture?" and "How do we want officers to respond to multi-cultural encounters in the field?" The answers to these questions guide the instructional process toward the desired instructional outcomes.

When designing instruction, Kemp (1985) believes that presenters need to ask three basic questions:

These questions should guide presenters to develop curriculum with considerations for learning objectives, delivery of content, and evaluation of the learning process.

Most instructional design models include goals and objectives of training, considerations of student and instructor characteristics and expertise, subject content, teaching and learning activities, instructional resources, and learning evaluations. These designs also support a learning process that involves behavioral changes of the learner through experience or training. Explicit learning objectives will guide the instructional process to help students achieve the desired outcomes. Learning objectives should be based on the intended instructional outcome, and set a sound basis for the selection and design of the instructional process. Learning objectives will also provide a foundation for evaluating instructor effectiveness, and they will provide students with an organizing approach to process and assimilate content (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992; Kincaid & Horner, 1997).

The POST Cultural Diversity instructional process incorporates learning objectives designed to meet the desired outcomes of sensitivity toward, and effective interaction with, cultural groups. These objectives are:

The instructional processes that support these objectives include learning activities such as self-assessments, interactive video scenarios, role play, and group discussions. These selected activities support the objectives as outlined in the instructional design, and they enhance memory retention and transfer.

Most curricula (and cultural diversity curriculum in particular) focus on the development of cognitive processes, self-actualization of the learner, and social changes and their relevance to the student. The curriculum must be developed with special attention to the experiential level of students. Assumptions about students’ abilities that instructors bring to the curriculum must be carefully evaluated when making the "conceptual leap" from purpose and process to implementation. The perceived effectiveness of the training depends upon the socio-cultural processes which influence personal experience and learning within the classroom (Alton-Lee & Nuthall, 1992). Consequently, the POST cultural diversity training includes: ideas on cross-cultural communications, problem-solving exercises and scenarios, and ethics instruction. The diversity training should consistently consider the socio-cultural processes of cadets in the Basic Course.

Cultural awareness and ethnic diversity training is most challenging when painted against a backdrop of anti-minority socialization practices that often occur from dealings with deviant persons in minority populations. Many police officers learn about minority people from encounters in high-crime neighborhoods (Ogawa, 1990; Wolfgang & Ferracutti, 1987). When minority populations are dramatically over-represented in crime statistics and police encounters, a causal relationship between color and deviance might be a logical result. Police science theorists submit that community-based policing might counteract this effect. With this in mind, LD 42 objective 13.42.2 encourages a community-based approach within the context of the classroom, striving to transfer these attitudes to the workplace and to the field.

The relationship of cultural awareness to self-awareness is dramatically evident in this context. Effective interactions between cultures are fostered by a healthy self-awareness of one’s personal perspectives and by mutual respect for the worldview, morals, mores, and folkways of others. One of the underlying aspects of cultural diversity training is for students to understand who they are and how they feel about people who are different from themselves.

The cultural diversity learning objectives are from the cognitive and affective domains. Some cognitive objectives focus on defining culture and categorizing ethnic groups within California. The affective objectives focus on developing attitudes and behaviors that are sensitive toward various ethnic groups and thereby developing respect for these groups. The curriculum design incorporates self-assessment inventories, individual and group exercises, and group discussions that help students understand their personal attitudes toward diversity. Exercises and inventories are presented in a paper-pencil format and utilize slide presentations on PowerPointÒ and overheads. These exercises are designed to help students be more congruent between the cognitive and affective components of their personalities. Many students are incongruent with their "thinking and feeling parts," and this will affect their behavior and attitude toward diversity training and other cultural contacts. Purposeful activities designed to expose students to pluralistic ideas and experiences speak to the intent of the LD 42 curriculum (Branch, 1997). Some of the self-assessment inventories in LD 42 designed to create a pluralistic classroom environment are listed below:

While the responses to the inventories are considered private and personal, the opportunity for discussion is encouraged. Generally, open discussions are facilitated by the instructor and welcomed by the group. This format helps students with personal understanding of their attitudes and behaviors toward people different than themselves. In addition, the inventories promote sensitivity to ethnic groups by exposing myths and stereotypes commonly held in society. Students are often surprised to learn that many cultural groups have similar histories and experiences. The self-awareness process is generally perceived as a positive experience for students.

Learning depends upon integrating the material presented with students' existing knowledge to form a more meaningful connection that will enhance future retrieval of information. This process is possible through memory retention techniques of rehearsal, elaboration, and affective strategies (Gagne, Briggs, & Wager, 1992). For example, .memory retention increases when the class shares personal experiences they learned from the self-assessment inventories in LD 42. Helping students become more aware of their incongruencies and exposing them to their personal stereotypes about groups, can help reveal attitudes of overgeneralization about, and stereotypic responses to, particular groups of people. This active learning approach has a direct impact on retention and transfer of effective strategies to enhance cultural communications.

Additional active learning approaches based on the affective objectives of developing respectful attitudes and behaviors for all ethnic groups can be accomplished through the use of video scenarios. Kozma (1991) reported that studies showed students who watched a "dialogless movie" had better memory recall than students who had the audio only. The visual channel seemed to provide more memory traces for long-term retrieval. The use of visuals is a good method to help students increase their understanding of diversity issues.

The LD 42 cultural diversity video scenarios are designed to aid in the retention process. The use of this technology, either through TV or the LCD projector, re-enacts situations that law enforcement personnel will encounter in the field. At the same time, the videos expose students to cultural stereotypes. The video scenarios are aligned with the LD 42 curriculum and are an appropriate learning activity that aids in students’ understanding of diversity issues. There are group discussion guidelines available to help with the facilitation process of the video content. The experiential learning style of the video scenarios increases the chance of meeting the instructional outcome of changing behavior and attitudes toward ethnic groups.

The video approach is also used as a learning activity by the Tools for Tolerance for Law Enforcement program. Incorporating an experiential learning style through interactive videos, computers, and exhibits results in a life-like atmosphere where students previously held beliefs can be challenged. These learning activities have had a substantial impact on the law enforcement personnel who have participated in the program.

The excitement surrounding the use of "high-tech" approaches to curriculum is good. However, curriculum must drive the learning activities, which can then include "high-tech" approaches. If high-tech technology drives the curriculum, then instructors miss the mark.

The decision to use technology should begin with a solid instructional system design, a framework that guides instructors through the process. Instructors must understand exactly what they expect learners to know and do at the end of training. They must consider which learning activities would best facilitate the learning process and help achieve the eventual goal of the learning objectives.

It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the presentation. The evaluation of the curriculum must be a formative process creating the best learning environment for students. The systems approach provides opportunities for achieving the desired instructional outcomes. When presented according to the guidelines of the Train-the-Trainers course, the LD 42 curriculum has received high marks for effectiveness. Informal surveys indicate that students feel the training helped them to have different, more respectful, and pluralistic perspectives on cultural groups.

Training effectiveness is truly measured when officers carry those perspectives to their jobs. The use of self-assessments and video scenarios are valid strategies for enhancing cross-cultural communication skills. Generally, the learning activities and resources use what some may call "low-tech" approaches to training. However, the low-tech approaches combined with new technologies and a solid design are appropriate for the content.

An important theme throughout cultural diversity training must be the use of experiential and interactive learning activities. If students are not actively engaged in the learning process then they will retain very little of the important educational content. LD 42 and the associated Train-the-Trainers program effectively incorporate instructional technology that guides students toward accomplishing the desired outcomes, which are attitudes and behaviors that are sensitive toward all ethnic and cultural groups. The active learning approach creates the opportunity for students to have increased self-awareness. In this author’s experience, self-awareness is the first fundamental step in the process of cultural awareness.

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1. California Commission on POST — www.post.ca.gov

2. California State University, Fresno — www.csufresno.edu

3. Museum of Tolerance, Tools for Tolerance Program — www.wiesenthal.com

4. American Society for Training and Development — www.astd.org

5. Author’s email address — marshat@csufresno.edu