Facilitation and Debriefing in Aviation Training and Operations

Facilitation, as the term is used in this work, refers to processes by which one member of a group operates to help the group analyze issues, learn from experience, and work as a team to draw conclusions. This volume seeks to show the innovative ways facilitation is being used in aviation and to provide an account of methods in facilitation that will enable aviation professionals to apply these methods in their work. The first chapter outlines the basic concepts of facilitation and traces its origins. It compares the advantages and disadvantages of facilitation with traditional methods of instruction, discusses the circumstances in which each is best used, and recommends an approach to training facilitators. The second chapter describes a research study of facilitation in Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) debriefings, and the third chapter gives guidance for using facilitation techniques in LOFT debriefings. Chapter Four identifies other applications of facilitation in aviation training, and the next three chapters, respectively, discuss debriefing of normal line operations, critical line incidents in which crews have got into some sort of trouble, and traumatic line incidents and accidents.