Only the educated are free.
--- Epictetus
In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
--- Eric Hoffer
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
--- Edward Everett
The highest result of education is tolerance.
--- Helen Keller
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
--- Solomon
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
--- Thomas Jefferson
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
--- Thomas Jefferson
No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.
--- Walter Lippmann
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
--- Joseph Addison
I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.
--- Alexander of Macedon
Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.
--- Robert M. Hutchins
It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather that the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.
--- Bertrand Russell
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
--- H.G. Wells
The best universities of the 21st century will bring together brainpower where it is, not where it can be institutionalized. The aim must be to create a republic of the intellect open to all, whose natural constituency will be those who keep themselves intellectually aware throughout their lives.
--- Sir Douglas Hague, Beyond Universities: A New Republic of the Intellect, 1991
Educational Principles and Research
- American Association of University Professors (AAUP) 1915 Declaration of Principles
- including the following
- Since there are no rights without corresponding duties, the considerations heretofore set down with respect to the freedom of the academic teacher entail certain correlative obligations. The claim to freedom of teaching is made in the interest of integrity and of the progress of scientific inquiry; it is, therefore, only those who carry on their work in the temper of the scientific inquirer who may justly assert this claim. The liberty of the scholar within the university to set forth his conclusions, be they what they may, is conditioned by their being conclusions gained by a scholar's method and held in a scholar's spirit; that is to say, they must be the fruits of competent and patient and sincere inuiry, and they should be set forth with dignity, courtesy, and temperateness of language. The university teacher, in giving instructions upon controversial matters, while he is under no obligation to hide his own opinion under a mountain of equivocal verbiage, should, if he is fit in dealing with such subjects, set forth justly, without suppression or innuendo, the divergent opinions of other investigators; he should cause his students to become familiar with the best published expressions of the great historic types of doctrine upon the questions at issue; and he should, above all, remember that his business is not to provide his students with ready-made conclusions, but to train them to think for themselves, and to provide them access to those materials which they need if they are to think intelligently.
- Tacit Knowledge and Practical Intelligence: Understanding the Lessons of Experience (local copy), by Hedlund et al, for U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Oct 2002
- This report addresses the role of practical intelligence and tacit knowledge in understanding how individuals learn from experience and develop expertise. We present background on the notion of practical intelligence as an alternative to conventional conceptualizations of intelligence, and the exploration of the acquisition and utilization of tacit knowledge as elements of practical intelligence.
Future Educational Technology, New Media, Social Media, & Education
- See also new media, social media on Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center
Sir Ken Robinson
- T.H.E. Journal - current and future uses of technology by students, faculty, and support staff
- The Chronicle of Higher Education - includes sections on research and information technology
- EDUCAUSE "is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology" -- includes
- Horizon Report, a collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative - new technologies (or new ways of using them, or new breadth of users) in next five years
- Media Shift: Your Guide to the Digital Media Revolution, PBS
- Military Advanced Education - "Journal of Higher Learning for Today's Servicemember"
- Military Training Technology - "America's Longest Established Simulation & Training Magazine"
- The Army Science of Learning Workshop (local copy, 29 Mb), Army Research Institute (ARI) Research Note 2007-02
- The Army Science of Learning Workshop - report only (local copy, 400 Kb)
- The Army Science of Learning Workshop - appendices (local copy, 25 Mb)
- excerpts from the findings
- Increase the use of distance learning technology
- Leverage key intervention points in the Army’s education system (WLC, BOLC, CCC, SCP) to influence a leader’s ability to effect change in his unit through socialization
- Integrate social networks, communities of practice, and AKO as an electronic supplement to socialization and relationship building
- Document and publicize Army personal leader development experiences
- Add adaptability to doctrine (FM 7-0, Training the Force) and to personnel system requirements
- Review available training practices for opportunities to improve adaptability, using as guidelines what we know and what works
- Focus instructor preparation on adaptability principles and practices
- Future Capabilities Working Group findings pointed to four future areas:
- Learning and performance. For future Soldiers and leaders, the meanings of “knowledge” and “learning” are changing. Soldiers are in the midst of a growing “information explosion” where the tools they need for job success are expanding. Research should focus on modifying the Army’s learning model to ensure that it is comprehensive and effective for increasing knowledge requirements. The model needs to interrelate information from different domains to reflect the “changing nature of knowing.” Mastery of facts is inadequate without the ability to access and integrate new information.
- Social and cultural behavior. Research about ways to improve social and cultural skills takes on new importance as joint and combined operations become the norm rather than the exception. Research using modeling and simulation (M&S) that includes distributed systems will help us understand how best to represent social interactions and portray cultural behavior. This research should include how to train for interactions with a full range of cultures, including hostile aliens, neutral populations, coalition partners, and nonmilitary organizations.
- Human-machine performance. Soldiers will increasingly rely on and interact with machines for individual and team performance enhancement. The Soldier, as a system enhanced by computers and new weapon capabilities, will be joined by robots. Research is needed to explore how to optimize the performance of these systems, the human-machine interface, and task sharing for optimal effect.
- Predictive models of readiness and performance. The design of training programs would improve greatly if we could use performance to predict readiness and, ultimately, to predict combat effectiveness. One key research step is to build and test predictive models that link individual and collective performance. Another is to build predictive linkages between performance and combat readiness. The goal is to determine components of actual combat effectiveness. Such predictive models would allow the Army to assess the military value of individual and collective performance enhancements.
- Educating the Net Generation, by Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005 - available online
Future Military Education - What's Needed? What's Coming?
- See also military education references which include OPMEP and HASC and Skelton reports
- See also New Media, Web 2.0, and Education & Training at the Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center (CIOSC)
- See also DoD and service leadership competency models at Strategic Leadership Studies for competencies to be addressed by military education
- See also the strategic corporal and the three-block war regarding the need for strategic thinking at all levels in today's and tomorrow's conflicts
- The lines separating the levels of war, and distinguishing combatant from "non-combatant," will blur, and adversaries, confounded by our "conventional" superiority, will resort to asymmetrical means to redress the imbalance. Further complicating the situation will be the ubiquitous media whose presence will mean that all future conflicts will be acted out before an international audience. [Krulak]
- Assessing 21st Century Skills: Summary of a Workshop, National Academies Press, Sep 2011
- Research has shown that the use of computers
has eliminated the need for humans to perform tasks that involve
solving routine problems or communicating straightforward information
(Autor, Levy, and Murnane, 2003; Levy and Murnane, 2004). Nonroutine
problem-solving and complex communication and social skills
are becoming increasingly valuable in the labor market. The modern
workplace requires workers to have broad cognitive and affective skills.
Often referred to as “21st century skills,” these skills include
- being able
to solve complex problems,
- to think critically about tasks,
- to effectively
communicate with people from a variety of different cultures and using
a variety of different techniques,
- to work in collaboration with others,
- to
adapt to rapidly changing environments and conditions for performing
tasks,
- to effectively manage one’s work, and
- to acquire new skills and
information on one’s own.
- One theme from that workshop was that across the entire labor market—
from high-wage biotechnology scientists and computer sales engineers
to low-wage restaurant servers and elder caregivers—five skills appear
to be increasingly valuable:
- adaptability,
- complex communication skills,
- nonroutine problem-solving skills,
- self-management/self-development;
and
- systems thinking (National Research Council, 2008).
- Horizons in Learning Innovation through Technology: Prospects for Air Force Education Benefits, by Air University A4/6I, 10 June 2010
- This report, “Horizons in Learning Innovation through Technology,” is the result of a collaborative effort by educators from inside and outside Air University. This sight picture describes why innovation matters for educating Airmen with the capacity to learn faster and adapt more quickly to the changing demands of warfighting, where unforgiving circumstances require greater knowledge, critical-thinking skills, and performance. The document supports AU strategic initiatives by stimulating thinking and discussion about emerging innovations as they pertain to leveraging educational technologies to enhance professional military education and professional continuing education, and deliver cyberspace education for the 21st century.
- Redress of Professional Military Education: The Clarion Call (local copy), by Allen, Joint Force Quarterly, 4th Quarter 2010
- It is conventional wisdom among Army officers that it is more important to have made the “quality cut” evidenced by selection for a senior level college than to actually attend.
This belief has become part of the culture, and it is now common practice that officers will defer attendance during the designated year of selection for senior level PME. Unless the officers do attend or have completed the 10-week Joint Professional Military Education II course at Joint Forces Staff College, these high performers will not be legally eligible for
flag ranks. The Army, therefore, will further restrict the bench from which its most senior leaders are drawn. The trend over the past 5 years shows that 50 percent of the principals
will choose to defer, delaying an officer’s attendance by an average of 2 years.
- Given that the average SLC officer will graduate with 23 years of service and the majority of colonels will retire at the 26-year mark, this allows only 3 years, or one assignment, to use the strategic education gained from the SLC experience.
- Developing Air Force Strategists: Change Culture, Reverse Careerism (local copy), by Bethel et al, Joint Force Quarterly, 3rd Quarter 2010
- The Air Force should seek out those officers who have a balanced brain—those who can not only intuit well and rapidly, but who also understand when it may be necessary to look for theories that can be generalized. Instead, the Service teaches “people, processes, and products” that make up the Air Operations Center at its command and staff college.
- There is no career path for strategists or strategic thinkers, and indeed there appears to be a trend away from intellectualism.
- Rather than disdaining intellectualism, senior leaders should be encouraged to read recent scholarship on strategic decisionmaking and ask themselves if they can learn something there. In addition to the long list of histories of command and leadership, Air Force senior leaders should have to read Scott Page’s The Difference, Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and Outliers, James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds, and most importantly, Alec Fisher’s The Logic of Real Arguments.
- Research, Writing, and the Mind of the Strategist (local copy), by Foster, in Joint Force Quarterly, Spring 1996
- Based on recent events, there is ample ground to conclude that our ability simply to cope with—much less shape—a future of pronounced complexity, uncertainty, and turbulence will depend in large measure on the prevalence of strategic thinkers in our midst.
- Ideas and the ability to generate them seem increasingly likely, in fact, to be more important than weapons, economic potential, diplomatic acumen, or technological advantage in determining who exercises global leadership and enjoys superpower status. Thus it is imperative to develop, nurture, and engage strategic thinkers at all levels—critical, creative, broadgauged visionaries with the intellect to dissect the status quo, grasp the big picture, discern important relationships among events, generate imaginative possibilities for action, and operate easily in the conceptual realm.
- A broad-based education expands and fuels the self-guided growth of one’s horizons. It develops the intellect and inculcates the spirit of inquiry for a lifelong pursuit of learning. The measure of education, far from being the level or even the sum of formal schooling, rests more in the degree of open-mindedness and active mental engagement
it engenders.
- Any institution that relies on professionals for success and seeks to maintain an authentic learning climate for individual growth must require its members to read (to gain knowledge and insight), discuss (to appreciate opposing views and subject their own to rigorous debate), investigate (to learn how to ask good questions and find defensible answers), and write (to structure thoughts and articulate them clearly and coherently).
- Growing Strategic Leaders for Future Conflict, by Salmoni et al, Parameters, Spring 2010
- Teaching Strategy: Challenge and Response (local copy), ed. Marcella, SSI, Mar 2010
- Schools for Strategy: Teaching Strategy for 21st Century Conflict (local copy), by Gray, SSI, Nov 2009
- Charting the Course for Effective Professional Military Education - 10 Sep 09 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee - local copies of transcripts below
- Lieutenant General Dave Barno, USA (ret.) - Director, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies
- Given the notable shortcomings many ascribe to U.S. strategic thinking over the last decade -- some deeply involving senior military leaders -- we must seriously question whether our program of PME today is on the right track. In my estimation, we are drifting off course, and if uncorrected, our marked advantage in the intellectual capital of warfare, in the face of an increasingly uncertain future, is at risk.
- Thus, for almost all senior officers -- all our generals and admirals -- the final fifteen to twenty years of their career is almost entirely largely lacking in extended developmental experiences. This fact becomes more troubling when correlated with the reality that decision-making and complexity at the senior levels -- especially regarding strategic and grand strategic issues -- is immensely more complex and uncertain than the relatively simpler worlds of tactics and operations. So-called "wicked problems" unresponsive to set-piece solutions abound.
- Dr. Williamson Murray - Senior Fellow, Institute for Defense Analyses
- The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suggests that the United States can no longer afford an approach resting on the comfortable assumption that commanders can acquire skills on the fly to deal with the new and different complexities that each conflict will bring in its wake. As General James Mattis suggested in an email to a professor at National War College, “We have been fighting on this planet for 5,000 years and we should take advantage of that experience. ‘Winging it’ and filling body bags as we sort out what works reminds us of the moral dictates and the cost of competence in our profession.” The depressing story of our flawed efforts to handle a burgeoning insurgency during the post-invasion period in Iraq suggests that too many senior officers had never studied the lessons of Vietnam, much less the experiences of the British in their efforts to defeat the 1920 insurgency in Iraq.
- Dr. John Allen Williams - President, Inter-University Seminar on the Armed Forces and Society
- Given the complexity of the future threat environment and the importance of the issues involved – military threats and the proper relation between the military and the society it serves –the Skelton Report’s call for the development of strategists and the encouragement of strategic thinking is increasingly relevant. One should note that these are not quite the same thing. Only a small number of officers will develop into strategists of the first rank, but these are so important that the PME system must do as much as it can to encourage them to develop their talents to the maximum degree possible.
- On Learning: The Future of Air Force Education and Training (local copy), AETC White Paper, 30 Jan 08
- from the news release:
"The 29-page white paper details how the Air Force can transform its training and education system of today into a continuous learning culture to meet the Air Force missions of tomorrow. The transformation will take place between 2008 and 2030.
AETC produced the forward-looking study with two purposes in mind, said Gen. William R. Looney III, AETC commander. The first was to generate a body of thought on the future of education and training. The second was to focus on impending issues for the Air Force.
The white paper introduces concepts that support the Air Force, its leaders and Airmen in their development and lifelong learning needs. At the heart of the vision is a learning organization called "Air Force 2.0." Air Force 2.0 is defined by three areas: knowledge management that discusses how the Air Force operates; continuous learning that covers how the Air Force develops people; and precision learning that explains how the Air Force delivers learning.
At the cornerstone of the new learning organization is a virtual delivery platform known as "MyBase." MyBase will provide an environment for lifelong learning, from educating the general public, to entry into the service, and throughout Airmen's careers and post-career years."
- Developing Strategic Leaders for the 21st Century (local copy), by McCausland, SSI, Feb 2008
- Civil-Military Operations and Professional Military Education (local copy), by Powers, JSOU Report 06-2, 2006
- In this monograph, the author addresses the historical, legal, doctrinal, and operational reasons CMO should be included in core PME. He discusses the impacts of this omission on the SOF assigned to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and suggests that the time to correct the oversight is now.
- Irregular Warfare: Impact on Future Professional Military Education (local copy), by Paschal, U.S. Army War College, March 2006
- Transition to the Information Age Demands Improvements to Professional Military Education System (local copy), Congressman Ike Skelton press release, 28 Sep 05
- Imagine what might happen if a Rembrandt received a box of 16 crayons, and an average Joe was given a full palette of oil paints, easel, and canvas. Which one is more likely to produce a work of art? The analogy may not exactly fit, but the point is clear – the tools matter less than the talent, training, and dedication that create the art. You can’t have a masterpiece without a master. I think we forget that sometimes in the realm of warfare.
- PME 2020, Future of Military Education (local copy), from SpaceCast 2020, showing where military education could go if full advantage were taken of technologies available now or soon in the future -- "virtual residency"
- Agile Leaders, Agile Institutions: Educating Adaptive and Innovative Leaders for Today and Tomorrow, by Gehler, SSI, Aug 2005
- Thinking About ... Learning in DoD: Changing the Culture (local copy, PDF version, 300 Kb), briefing by Wertheim, posted at DODCCRP - emphasis on need for more cultural education and understanding and skills
(original PPT file, 2 Mb)
- Mapping the Route of Leadership Education: Caution Ahead (local copy), by Reed et al, in Parameters, Autumn 2004
- Global War on Terrorism: Understanding the Long-Term Strategy - Why Education Is Key - (local copy), by Caslen, MECC briefing, 3 Feb 05 (PDF)
- Training for Future Conflicts (local copy), Defense Science Board report, June 2003
- The task force's principal finding is that transformation of the military will substantially increase the cognitive demands on even the most junior levels of the military. In short, everybody must think. Our current training and education processes will not adequately prepare our people to cope with these increasing and constantly changing cognitive requirements. Something new is needed to insure that all our forces are competent to do the many tasks that our transformed military will require of them. In general, however, we find that the research and development funding required to create this new kind of training is not only scarce, it is being cut. Finally, we find that the personnel system, like the acquisition system, is similarly free to disrupt training and military proficiency without being called to account for these results.
- Definition -- Training is relevant practice with feedback
- Many myths about training are sustained by commonsense, but not by research. For example, the notion that people learn better when the training process matches their “learning style” is quite appealing but not borne out by quantitative research.
- Residential instruction has a long historical precedent. For some kinds of training it is still appropriate, but lectures are a poor way to instil complex skills. Moreover, moving people in and out of schoolhouses is costly and incredibly disruptive to unit cohesion. Personal computers, networking, and new training technology now make it possible to move knowledge to the student instead of moving the student to the classroom.
- ... an electronically delivered course could e-mail former students when the course matter changed, in opposition to how a conventional course ends when the students
leave the classroom.
- Sampling of recommendations:
- To replace one-time schoolhouse training with continuous
training at the user’s location: home station or deployed
- Training devices that also migrate into being operational decision aids
- Distributed virtual training environments
- Universal, persistent on-demand training wars
- To make acquisition and personnel systems accountable for the training burdens they create
- To create a true Joint National Training Capability through networking
- Army FA59 (strategist) Education Demographics
- Variety of degrees - military studies, business, international relations, physical sciences, engineering, public admin, criminology, management, sociology, philosophy, English, political science, education, journalism, liberal arts, history, safety, economics, religion, psychology, leadership development, French, biology, anthropology, zoology, public affairs, communications, public policy, organizational behavior, and more
- "The degrees and schools illustrate that 59s are an incredible resource for the Army. Of particular note is the varied educational backgrounds which suggest a degree of "intellectual pluralism" which the Army and the Functional Area demand. While many in the Army have similar backgrounds and education --which may result in group think-- you'd be hard-pressed to assert that the varied backgrounds of the officers that populate our ranks (e.g., Harvard, Yale, Oxford, SAMS, Cornell, MIT, Ohio, Naval Post Graduate School, Webster, Troy State, Maryland, NDU, Michigan, etc.) will spout "cookie cutter" answers to the complex strategic problems facing the Army and America."
- Cognitive Transformation and Culture-Centric Warfare (local copy), by Scales, Congressional testimony, 15 Jul 04 - samples below
- More than a year after the Iraq war began soldiers are rotating home with a sense of unmet expectations. Consensus seems to building among them that this conflict was fought brilliantly at the technological level but inadequately at the human level. The human element seems to underlie virtually all of the functional shortcomings chronicled in official reports and media stories: information operations, civil affairs, cultural awareness, soldier conduct…and most glaringly, intelligence, from national to tactical.
- This new era of war requires soldiers equipped with exceptional cultural awareness and an intuitive sense for the nature and character of war. Where should this culture centric learning take place? Unfortunately higher-level military colleges and schools fail to meet the learning needs of the services. Very few military leaders are fortunate to be selected to attend institutions that teach war. Those selected are chosen based solely on job performance rather than for the excellence of their intellect. Personnel policies affecting the purpose of senior military education have transformed these institutions partly into meeting places intended to achieve interservice, inter agency and international comity. The price for socialization has been a diminishment in the depth and rigor of war studies within these institutions. Thus the central elements necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and character or war, military history (primarily) along with war games and military psychology and leadership, often are slighted in an effort to teach every subject to every conceivable constituency to the lowest common denominator.
- First, every military leader, particularly those whose job is to practice war, must be given every opportunity to study war. Learning must be a life-long process. Every soldier regardless of grade or specialty should be given unfettered and continuous access to the best and most inclusive programs of war studies. Every soldier who takes advantage of the opportunity to learn must receive recognition and professional reward for the quality of that learning. Contemporary distance learning technology allows the learning process to be amplified and proliferated such that every soldier can learn to his or her capacity and motivation.
- Second, those who demonstrate exceptional brilliance and whose capacity for higher level strategic leadership is exemplary should be afforded a unique opportunity to expand their knowledge to a degree unprecedented in the past. In this scheme the traditional staff and war colleges would focus attention exclusively on a constituency selected principally on intellectual merit. Every officer would be given the privilege of competing for a seat in these selective courses in residence.
- Educating the Post-Modern U.S. Army Strategic Planner: Improving the Organizational Construct (local copy), by Wilson, a 2003 SAMS paper
- DoD Office of Force Transformation (now defunct) - with DoD roadmaps to future
- Education for Transformation (Local Copy), Mar 2004 briefing by Pattillo, Office of Force Transformation - two interesting slides are after the Questions? slide at the end - indicating need for lifelong learning which is fun and tailored to individual needs
- Digital Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge (local copy), Feb 2001 report by President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC)
- University After Next, by Meigs and Fitzgerald, in Military Review (local copy)
- Developing the Warrior-Scholar (local copy), by Efflandt and Reed, in Military Review, Jul-Aug 2001
- Although the upper military echelons may assess a society from a nation-state perspective, a company commander performing humanitarian assistance for a village must see that village as a society and act accordingly. Junior officers who apply sociological imagination to the following three question sets can assess systematically various 21st-century situations and societies they will confront:
- What is the structure of the society as a whole?
- Where does this society stand in human history?
- What varieties of men and women prevail in this society and period?
- [above questions are expanded in the article]
- Professional Military Education for the 21st Century Warrior, 1998 MECC conference
- Prospects for Military Education (local copy), Spring 1998 Joint Force Quarterly
- Military Education Home Page, J-7 of JCS
- DL .. DL .. DL .. DL .. DL .. DL
Military Education References
- See also References & Guidelines for Teaching
- law and policy
- U.S. Code - Title 10, Professional Military Education
- CJCSI 1800.01D, Officer Professional Military Education Policy (OPMEP), 15 Jul 2009, Change 1-15 Dec 2011 - (local copy)
(CJCSI 1800.01C, OPMEP, 22 Dec 2005 is CANCELLED)
(CJCSI 1800.01B, OPMEP, 30 Aug 2004 is CANCELLED)
(CJCSI 1800.01A, OPMEP, 1 Dec 2000 is CANCELLED)
- Policies for PME
- Learning Objective Verbs
- By-Level PME Learning Areas and Objectives
- JPME Phase II Learning Areas and Objectives
- CJCS PME responsibilities by law and by regulation (local copy) - extracted from a J-7 briefing
- Another Crossroads? Professional Military Education Two Decades After the Goldwater-Nichols Act and the Skelton Panel (local copy, 5 Mb version), Apr 2010, released 6 May 2010 - "is the first comprehensive congressional review of the PME system since the Skelton Panel’s groundbreaking review in 1989"
(original, 8 Mb version)
- While we undertook this study convinced of the value of our professional military education system, we began with a fundamental question. What does PME contribute to officer development? The answer to that question goes to the heart of the American military tradition, and what it means to serve as a commissioned officer in the United States Armed Forces. From our country’s birth, the United States has valued selfless, ethical officers who are adept at leading diverse groups in the execution of complex, dangerous missions. True to these beginnings, our professional military education system develops military officers along three axes: character, or ethical and moral leadership; acculturation, or learning from one’s peers; and intellectual development, critical thinking, and mental agility. While we found that our PME system addresses all three of these important areas, improvements are needed in each.
- We touch on ethics in the “Issues for Further Study” section of this report, and recommend a comprehensive review and renewed emphasis on ethics in PME. Acculturation has become even more important with the ascendancy of joint, interagency, and intergovernmental operations, making the opportunity to learn with students from State, Justice, and Homeland Security, among other agencies, even more important than before. Though ethical education and opportunities for acculturation need improvement, we are encouraged by the Department’s plans and progress in these two areas.
- As a result of our study, we also reassert the value of in-residence officer PME. The Subcommittee finds that the reinforcing nature of in-residence PME has value in inculcating officer and leader values in student officers. In addition, we find the opportunity to learn directly from others with varied backgrounds invaluable. There is value in getting away from operational responsibilities to bond with fellow officers, both from one’s own service and from other services, and with civilian and international students. Intermittent breaks for in-residence education provide contemplative time to put operational lessons into context. These experiences are especially meaningful at the war college level, but are also valuable for more junior officers.
- We find the greatest need for improvement in the third fundamental PME mission area, intellectual development. This report explores various means by which critical thinking skills can be improved in the officer corps as a whole and how more strategists may be developed. The Subcommittee finds that both developing critical thinking skills among all officers and cultivating a number of skilled strategists remain important objectives of our PME system.
- Military officers have always been called upon to develop creative solutions to complex problems. The Subcommittee heard considerable evidence of the need for officers with strong critical thinking skills from the most junior to the most senior levels. If anything, officers are confronted with these challenges more often and at more junior ranks than ever before and, at times, with strategic implications riding on their decisions and their actions. We are concerned by the lack of a coherent, comprehensive, and effective program to improve critical thinking skills among all officers continually throughout their careers. We also found that there is a pronounced need for officers with strategic vision. In our view, the most gifted strategists are pragmatic innovators with whole-of-government and global perspectives. We found no uniform or coordinated plan for elevating well-educated strategists to critical decision-making positions at the most senior levels of command.
- ...
- While we have made suggestions for improvement, we were inspired by the commitment of those engaged in this important enterprise. We were especially impressed with the students and faculty we met this year. Our country’s system for educating its officers remains sound. The Committee will continue to work with the Department of Defense to maintain that strength and improve it where we can.
- The Origins of Joint Professional Military Education (local copy), by Yaeger, in Joint Force Quarterly, issue 37, 2nd Quarter, 2005
- Naval War College Library bibliography on PME (local copy)
- JFSC Pub 1, The Joint Staff Officer's Guide 2000 - local copy
- 1989 Skelton Report - Panel on Military Education of the 100th Congress ( local copy), extensive background info - 12.3 Mb, whole report
Part 1, 5.3 Mb,
Part 2, 5.7 Mb,
Part 3, 1.9 Mb
- U. S. Army Training Support Center "serves the Army by providing consolidated and centralized training support products and services"
U.S. Government
DoD - JCS Education Links
- See also Accrediting Joint Education including PAJE process and schedule
- US and international intermediate and senior JPME equivalent institutions
- Doctrine Networked Education and Training (DOCNET)
- CPMS Leader & Professional Development Division (LPDD), including the following
- Defense Senior Leader Development Program (DSLDP)
- Defense Leadership and Management Program (DLAMP)
- Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP)
- Civilian Education and Professional Development (CE&PD) Branch
- Military Education Home Page, J-7 of JCS
- US Joint Forces Command, Joint Warfighting Center & Joint Training Directorate
- Joint Course & Courseware Catalog
- Universal Joint Task List (UJTL)
- Alphabetical Index
- Index by UJTL Reference, courses arranged by Strategic National Military Level, Strategic Theater Level, Operational Level, and Tactical Level
Joint Air Operations Center (JAOC) Staff Course, downloadable, incl seminar material, exam, & exercise
JFACC and Staff General Information Course
- Joint Course Roadmap
- Joint Deployment Training Center (JDTC)
- Military Education Coordination Council (MECC), works on cooperative curriculum development/sharing and other projects
Distributed Learning Offices and Initiatives
- No Significant Difference Phenomenon -- web site with multiple articles examining what if any difference in learning occurs based on mode of education (resident vs distance learning)
- Joint Knowledge Online (JKO)
- Guide to the Evaluation of Education Experiences in the Armed Services, American Council on Education (ACE) college credit recommendations, by course
- The Effectiveness of Web-based Training (local copy), Wisher and Olson, ARI report, Jan 2003
- Satellite Uplink-Downlink
- Government Education and Training Network (GETN), includes DoD, "over 1,000 downlink sites, 13 uplink sites, and 9,000 hours annual programming"
- Air Technology Network (ATN)
- Federal
- Federal Government Distance Learning Association (FGDLA)
- Executive Order 13111 - Using Technology to Improve Training Opportunities for Federal Government Employees
- DoD - Joint
- DoD Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative home page (ADLNet), including guidelines on compatibility and sharing courseware
- Doctrine Networked Education and Training (DOCNET)
- Defense Acquisition University (DAU)
- National Guard
- National Guard Professional Education Center (NGPEC)
- Army Distributed Learning System (DLS), including Army National Guard
- I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training & Education Center, McGhee Tyson ANGB, TN
- Air Force
- Education Logistics and Communications (A4/6), formerly Air Force Institute for Advanced Distributed Learning (AFIADL), formerly USAF Extension Course Institute (ECI) and the USAF Distance Learning Office (AFDLO)
- I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training & Education Center, McGhee Tyson ANGB, TN
- Army
- Distance Learning: A Way of Life-Long Learning (local copy), by Belanich et al, Army Research Institute (ARI) Special Report 63, Sep 2005
- Training on the Web: Identifying and Authenticating Learners (local copy), Curnow et al, ARI report, June 2002
- The Effectiveness of Web-based Training (local copy), Wisher and Olson, ARI report, Jan 2003
- Distance Learning: the Soldier's Perspective (local copy), by Wisher et al, U.S. Army Research Institute (ARI), Special Report 49, May 2002
- Army's Distributed Learning System (DLS) "provides training for Soldiers and units, anytime... anywhere"
- GoArmyEd
- The Army Distributed Learning Program (TADLP)
- Navy
- Navy e-Learning - see Navy portal
- Marine
- Marine Corps College of Distance Education and Training (CDET), formerly known as College of Continuing Education (CCE)
- Coast Guard
- U.S. Coast Guard Institute
Education & Training Commands
DoD Universities and Multi-School Centers
Senior PME/PCE, Officers
Intermediate PME/PCE, Officers
Professional/Continuing Education
- See also the Other Schools section below
- See also Schools and Courses on Information Operations page
- Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management (DISAM) -- "the centralized Department of Defense (DoD) school for the consolidated professional education of personnel involved in security cooperation management."
- National Defense Intelligence College, formerly Joint Military Intelligence College, with courses/degrees from undergrad to M.S.
- AF Command and Control Training and Innovation Group (AFC2TIG), Hurlburt Field, FL
- C2 Warrior School, Hurlburt Field, FL -- includes class schedules and instructional CD-ROMs on C2, ATOs, targeting, JAOC functions, Master Air Attack Plan, CTAPS, etc.
- Ira C. Eaker College for Professional Development (CPD)
- Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education
- Curtis E LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education, formerly the Air Force Doctrine Development & Education Center (AFDDEC), formerly The College of Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education (CADRE) and the USAF Doctrine Center
- Courses
- Joint Flag Officer Warfighting Course (JFOWC)
- Joint Force Air Component Commander (JFACC) Course
- Combined Force Air Component Commander (CFACC) Course
- Contingency Wartime Planning Course (CWPC)
- Information Warfare Applications Course (IWAC)
- Senior Information Warfare Applications Course (SIWAC)
- Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT)
- Air Force Institute for Advanced Distributed Learning (AFIADL), formerly USAF Extension Course Institute (ECI) and the USAF Distance Learning Office (AFDLO)
- Guide to the Evaluation of Education Experiences in the Armed Services, American Council on Education (ACE) college credit recommendations, by course
- Naval Reserve Professional Development Center
- Army Management Staff College (AMSC)
- General Officer Installation Commander Course (GOIC)
- Personnel Management for Executives (PME I and II)
- Garrison Precommand Course (GPC), addressing leadership and management requirements for base operations
- Garrison Command Sergeant Major Course (GCSMC)
- Non-resident Program
- Army Logistics Management College (ALMC)
- Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
- Army Institute for Professional Development (AIPD)
- Air Force Systems Acquisition School (SAS), Brooks AFB, TX
- School of Systems and Logistics, Air Force Institute of Technology
Junior or Introductory PME, Officers
Enlisted Colleges/Academies/Resources
- Air Force Schools/Resources
- Army Schools/Resources
- Navy Schools/Resources
- Marine Schools/Resources
Other Schools/Centers
- Air Force
- Army
- Navy
- Coast Guard
College Credit Programs
Base/Post Education Centers
Accession Programs
International Military Education
- See also international military doctrine links
- US and international intermediate and senior JPME equivalent institutions
- International Military Education and Multinational Military (local copy), by Moskos, for U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 2004
- The core thesis is that American military officers can play a key role in countering incipient and overt perceptions of American arrogance. This report is based on interviews with international officers (IOs) at American war, command and staff colleges in each of the services who participate in International Military and Education and Training (IMET).
- NATO Defense College
- George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
- International Training Course at Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP)
- Inter-American Defense College (IADC)
- Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)
- Regional Security Cooperation Network (RSCN) - "The Regional Security Cooperation Network's mission is to facilitate the implementation of distributed education and training, in order to improve interoperability between the US and foreign militaries and to enhance regional security cooperation."
- Naval Command College, for international officers, hosted by Naval War College "to help prepared specially selected senior naval officers for higher command responsibilities in their own navies and to familiarize them with United States Navy methods, practices, and doctrine"
- Naval Staff College, for international officers, hosted by Naval War College "to assist specially selected international naval officers in developing their professional and managerial skills, in order to prepare for command and staff positions within their own navies"
- Expanded International Military Education and Training (E-IMET) program, "intended for the use of all U.S. DoD and State Department organizations who are involved in the management of the U.S. Security Assistance program. "
- Australia - Australian Defence College (ADC), similar to the U.S. National Defense University
- Australia - Australian Defence Force Warfare Centre (ADFWC), "a joint unit established to study, develop, teach, promulgate and provide advice on Australian Defence Force joint and combined warfare doctrine, procedures and tactics."
- Australia - Australian Aerospace Centre, formerly Air Power Studies Centre of the Department of Defence, mission "to develop doctrine and promote an understanding of air power issues and its contribution to the security of Australia"
- Baltic - Baltic Defence College
- Belgium - Royal Military Academy of Belgium
- Canada - Canadian Forces College--War, Peace and Security Server, a SUPER resource about international military and political stuff
- Canada - Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre
- International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC), founded at the Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre, "to facilitate communication and exchange of information between the various peacekeeping training centres and/or among people responsible for, and interested in, peacekeeping training"
- Canada - Canadian Forces Centre of Excellence for Peace Support Operations Training (PSTC)
- Canada - Defense Research Establishment - Ottawa (DREO)
- Canada - Canadian Army Lessons Learned Centre
- Colombia - Universidad Militar Neuva Granada
- Czech Republic - Military Academy in Brno
- Denmark - Hærens Officersskole
- France - Ecole Navale
- Germany - Universitat der Bundeswehr Hamburg, Federal Armed Forces University, Hamburg
- Germany - Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen, Federal Armed Forces University, Munich
- Greece - Hellenic Army Academy
- Hungary - Zrinyi Miklos Nemzetvedelmi Egyetem - National Defence University
- Japan - National Defense Academy
- Poland - Academy of National Defence
- Sweden - Swedish National Defence College
- Sweden - Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences, non-state organization with research (including sponsored fellows) and studies and political-military journal (and other military) links for all of Scandinavia, in each language
- Turkey - Kara Harp Okulu - Turkish Military Academy
- United Kingdom - Defence Academy of the United Kingdom - includes the following
- United Kingdom - Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham
- United Kingdom - Royal Air Force College Cranwell
- United Kingdom - Airmen's Command Squadron "role is to provide effective management and leadership training for junior and senior non-commissioned officers in the Royal Air Force"
- United Kingdom - Royal Air Force Training Group Defence Agency (TGDA)
- United Kingdom - Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (RUSI), based in Whitehall, London, studying security issues
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indicate all or part of DL course offered on CD-ROM or Web.