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The authors suggested that “in lieu of distinctions between the concepts, we believe it is more relevant to focus on matters of process and outcomes [italics added]. The common link between education and training is the process of teaching or instruction,” which, they contended, includes a broad range of activities. “In this perspective, both training and education are considered outcomes, and the teaching-instruction process becomes the critical point,” which speaks to the importance for exploring the potential purported efficacy of andragogy (Conser & Russell, 2000, p. 323).
The Traditional Model
Many advocates for exploring change within police training argue that traditional police training methodologies are predicated on an outdated military model that emphasizes structure, regimen, discipline, and curricular content with little, if any, deliberation on the transactional processes associated with learning. Addressing this concern, Dwyer and Laufersweiler-Dwyer (2004) contended that “for years, academicians and police trainers have suggested changes not only in academy content but also methods of educating officers to meet changes in society, technology, law, and crime” (pp. 18–24). Similarly, Birzer (2003), a strong advocate for exploring new alternatives in training, suggested that “one area of police-training that has remained fairly uniform is the manner in which academy training is conducted.” He explained that “many police-training programs are conducted in a very behavioral and militaristic environment,” which “has paralleled police officer selection strategies over the past 50 years,” that is, one in which police officers “were hired for their good physical condition, their interest in crime control, and their ability to follow command decisions without hesitation” (pp. 29–42). He contended that “many have argued that the paramilitary model of policing has created myriad problems not only in the training environment, but also in the general culture of the organization” (Lorinskas & Kulis, 1986, and Weisburd, 1989, cited in Birzer, 2003, p. 29–42). Referencing the work by McNeill (1992), Birzer suggested that “theoretical scholarship has pointed out that the behavioral and paramilitary