Students' Theses in the FIRE Project

2024:

Bea Osladil validated a competency model for team members in the fire department in her bachelor's thesis. She was able to validate a total of 25 competencies across 4 competency areas as important. It was found that social skills in particular are rated as more important outside of operations or in the office.

2023:

In her master's thesis, Jillian Uhlenbrock investigated correlations between various daily fluctuating factors and work-related learning success in the context of basic and advanced training courses at state fire service schools. No correlation was found between mental well-being in the morning and learning success on a daily basis. In contrast, respectful and humorous leadership behavior proved to be significant predictors of work-related learning success.

In her master's thesis, Katharina Füssel developed a competency model for group leaders in the fire department.To this end, she conducted 18 interviews, which resulted in a total of 26 competencies.

2022:

In her master's thesis, Laura Schlapper investigated whether there are differences between face-to-face learning and blended learning in terms of leadership motivation, leadership confidence and trust in the group. It was shown that blended learning does not lead to less trust within the training group, but actually increases it more than in the face-to-face learning group. The self-assessed leadership confidence did not differ at both points in time, but in the external assessment by the trainers, the participants in the blended learning course were initially rated as less confident in leadership. Finally, it was shown that leadership motivation was initially equally strong between the groups, but increased more strongly within the blended learning group.

In her bachelor's thesis, Franziska Roß validated a competency model for unit leaders in the volunteer fire department. An online study with 200 participants confirmed its validity. No differences were found in the assessment of the model between unit leaders and their team members.

In her bachelor thesis, Helena Hoschke developed a questionnaire and a model for motivation in voluntary work. The final model was based on the factors sensation and adventure seeking, self-esteem/recognition, affiliation, professional balance, altruism, gaining competence and social influence.

In her master's thesis, Greta Schrade investigated relationships on the topic of respectful leadership in fire department debriefings. She found that respectful leadership, compared to neutral leadership, is associated with significantly higher satisfaction with debriefings and work engagement. This correlation could be explained by a better psychological safety climate.

2021:

In her bachelor thesis, Louisa Burgund developed an English-language questionnaire to measure the motivation of people who are involved in voluntary work.The final version contained 26 items spread across 7 factors.

Anita Köllmann validated a competency model for fire department platoon leaders in her master's thesis. In an online study, she surveyed 240 firefighters and summarized the existing competency model from 2019 into a lean, applicable model of 8 overarching competencies.

Mira von der Linde created a competency model for senior civil servants in fire services in her master's thesis. Using 22 structured interviews and the critical incident method, she was able to identify 23 key competencies, which she categorized into four competency areas.

In her bachelor's thesis, Melanie Göcke built on the preliminary work on the competency model for trainers in the volunteer fire department and developed this further into a general competency model for trainers in the fire department and other emergency services. She validated 20 competencies and found that there were no significant differences in the assessment of the importance of the competencies between different management levels of the participating firefighters. 

In her master's thesis, Klara Freitag developed a questionnaire to record the work-related demands and resources of German firefighters. The theoretical basis of the questionnaire was the Job Demands-Ressources Theory. The final questionnaire comprises 22 items on work-related resources and 18 on work-related demands. She had already tested the questionnaire in her own master's thesis and was able to identify correlations between ressources, work engagement and work satisfaction.

2020:

Manuel Schmitt wrote his bachelor's thesis on competencies for group leaders in the fire department. Using interviews and the critical incident method, he was able to identify a large number of necessary competencies, which he then summarized as overcompetencies.

Miriam Redecker carried out a requirements analysis for unit leaders in the volunteer fire department in her master's thesis. She conducted 25 interviews and analyzed the resulting information using the critical incident method. 

Karoline Hagemann developed a competency model for fire department trainers in her master's thesis. Using 26 interviews, which she analyzed using the critical incident method, she was able to create a model with 29 competencies and four areas of competence (technical, methodological-didactic, social and personal competence). She also examined the sensitivity of trainers to these competencies.

In her master's thesis, Anna Deponte investigated the development and influence of trust between firefighters and their group leaders. Using a structural equation model, she found that the trustworthiness of the group leaders had the greatest correlation with the trust of the firefighters and that this led to them being more willing to take risks. High trust in team leaders was also linked to job and operational satisfaction. 

2019:

In his master thesis, Oliver Eicke developed a competence model for platoon leaders in the fire department. In a series of interviews, he asked experienced platoon leaders about their behavior in particularly challenging situations. The resulting model emphasizes the importance of social skills as well as the ability to act in extreme situations.

In her bachelor thesis, Hannah Thölking found out that laypersons have both the willingness and the ability to extinguish a developing fire themselves with the help of a handy extinguishing spray. Trust in one's own abilities, for example, played a role in this. Hannah concluded that practical extinguishing exercises are also useful for laypersons. This Bachelor thesis was part of the TEBRAS project.

Lena Tangelder investigated in her bachelor thesis the behavior of laymen during the development of a fire. She found out that extraverted persons react particularly fast with an attempt to extinguish a fire when confronted with it for the first time. Other personality traits showed no influence. A repeated confrontation with the fire also contributed to a faster reaction time and reduced stress. This Bachelor thesis was part of the TEBRAS project.

Dzenita Hadzihalilovic created in her master thesis a modified version of the FIRE core questionnaire, which can be used for the evaluation of the crisis management training - the FIRE-CU. Her validation study with participants of crisis staff exercises showed that the FIRE-CU covers the same dimensions as the FIRE core questionnaire.

2018:

Hannah Felske developed and validated an instrument for the evaluation of shorter seminars and one-day events based on the FIRE core questionnaire - the FIRE-ST. She was able to show that the FIRE-ST covers the dimensions lecturer behavior, structure, level of requirements, acquisition of competencies and optional transfer.

In her master thesis, Lena Niemann validated the questionnaire developed by Lisa Streppel for the evaluation of basic training. Using a large sample of firefighters, she was able to confirm the six dimensions of the questionnaire. She was also able to show that the questionnaire predicted the satisfaction and learning success of the course participants. The questionnaire can be used in a wide variety of basic training courses at the community level and district level to assess the quality of training and identify potential for improvement.

In two studies, Lisa Streppel has developed a tool for evaluating the basic training of rescue workers in local fire departments. For this purpose, she first conducted interviews with firefighters. On the basis she derived questionnaire items. A pilot study with fire departments all over Germany showed that the questionnaire can reflect six dimensions of good teaching in basic training: Structure & didactics, support & promotion, group, practice, material & facilities and acquisition of competence.

2017:

In her master thesis, Katharina Frerichs conducted a validation study for the questionnaire for the evaluation of written examinations developed by Jessica Nora Busjan. Among other things, she showed that the questionnaire precisely measures the three dimensions preparation of the exam by the course, design of the exam and the burden of the exam.

In her master thesis Mona Hagel developed and validated the two additional modules "lecturer behavior" and "incident training" in addition to the FIRE core questionnaire. This allows a flexible use of the FIRE scales, which can be adapted to the actual practical needs.

Niklas Schulte validated the FIRE core questionnaire in his master thesis. Among other things, he was able to confirm that the questionnaire can precisely capture six different dimensions of good teaching. These describe the course itself (lecturer behavior, structure, requirement level & group) and the results of the course (competence acquisition & transfer).

2016:

Jessica Nora Busjan developed two questionnaires for the evaluation of written and practical examinations in leadership courses. First, she conducted interviews and written surveys with course participants, examiners and lecturers to identify characteristics of good exams. From these she derived questionnaire items, which she first checked for relevance and clarity and then presented to a large sample of course participants. Statistical analyses based on these results provided information about the dimensionality of both questionnaires.

In her master thesis Linda Loberg examined the group and platoon leader training courses at the Institute of the Fire Brigade North Rhine-Westphalia (IdF NRW) and compared an existing training concept with a newly developed concept. Based on the results, she was able to derive suggestions for improvement. The participants of the training course especially positively evaluated a close interlocking of theoretical and practical blocks.

In her master thesis, Stephanie Babiel developed an instrument for evaluating the quality of group and platoon leader training courses. She first conducted interviews to identify the central aspects of good teaching. From this she derived questionnaire items which she tested for relevance and clarity. On the basis of a pilot study, this resulted in the precursor of the FIRE core questionnaire, which can record different dimensions of good teaching in a time-saving and precise way.

2015:

In her master thesis Stephanie C. Sievers extended a leadership process model, which describes thought and action processes for coping with operational situations. For this purpose, interviews with fire department managers were conducted. Six phases of the leadership process were identified from the analyses: "mission preparation/post-event follow-up", "coordination", "situational awareness", "determination", "arrangement" and "measure realization/implementation".