Can resilience lessons be usefully integrated into the training of technical skills?

CADET TRAINING: Specifically, our approach to resilience training for Cadets is intended to train participants to reflect on adversity as an opportunity for development via coping self-reflection. Five reflective practices are encouraged as part of the training in order to strengthen resilience: (1) awareness of one’s emotional, physical, behavioural and cognitive coping responses to triggering events and the inter-relationships between these responses, (2) awareness of values and value-based goals in relation to the situation, (3) awareness of strategies applied to deal with the situation, (4) evaluation of strategy effectiveness in relation to values and goals and (5) adaptation of strategies to promote improvements in future coping. CADET INSTRUCTOR TRAINING In the intervention group, RMC instructors will receive training to integrate the reflective practices during specified exercises by asking questions during after-activity reviews that promote coping and emotion regulatory reflections described above. The training will be delivered by Dr Monique Crane and Ms Madison Kho from Macquarie University. The training will be approximately 2-hours in length and will involve the following face-to-face instruction: (1) Explaining the utility of self-reflection in developing resilience (2) Explaining how this could be integrating into the training of technical skills and leadership skills (3) When it is appropriate to engage Cadet’s in self-reflection (4) What the self-reflective process is (5) What questions to ask (6) Some illustrations and examples (7) Live practice During pre-defined field-based exercises, instructors will incorporate certain self-reflective questions that help Cadets to build: (1) self-awareness, (2) self-evaluation skills and (3) self-development. Such reflective questions include, but are not limited to: (1) 'How did being given the role of leadership change the way you felt or thought about the situation?', (2) 'How do you think some of these thoughts or feelings affected your behaviour?', (3) 'What do you think was the impact of some of these behaviours on the outcomes, your performance or the performance of others in your leadership'? (4) 'In terms of your goals and leadership values, were you happy with the outcomes of your response to situational demands?' (5) 'What do you think was a strength in the way you responded to the demands of the situation?' (6) 'How might you apply such a strength across different situations?', (7) 'Where do you think you need to develop your skills or knowledge further in relation to how you handled the demands of the situation?', (8) 'How might you develop that skill or knowledge? Four trained researchers will observe RMC instructors integrating the reflective questions into their normal instruction. Instructors will be rated on their capacity to integrate the reflective questioning.