Lifelong learning: a transformation in training, mindset
“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing. …” – Mortimer Adler
You’ve undoubtedly heard Army leaders talk about the future force and that the Soldier is the centerpiece of it. But for the Soldier (and Department of the Army civilian employee) to be mentally equipped for the future – and today’s – modular force, there’s a bedrock the Army must build on first.
No, it’s not Warrior Ethos, although that’s certainly foundational; it’s the mindset of lifelong learning -- a lifetime of learning.
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Learning must be perpetual – “lifelong” – and that’s
a transformation in individual mindset for some. To stay relevant and ready,
the Soldier and civilian must take personal responsibility for learning. “The
gut of the lifelong-learning process is that to remain productive, a human being
needs to constantly learn,” said Col. Bill Wilson, director of the Directorate
of Training at the Signal Center, Fort Gordon, Ga.
Although Training and Doctrine Command is certainly in the business of schoolhouses, the command no longer is tied to “the schoolhouse,” which is seeing a revolution of sorts. TRADOC's goal is to “be able to export training to a Soldier anywhere, anytime.” Therefore there’s an impetus within TRADOC to create lifelong-learning centers – the foundation of each proponent’s “home university” – and to get Soldiers to think in terms of learning lifelong. As Wilson said, the concept of lifelong learning is one where the Army “teaches and reaches the mindset that every Soldier and civilian employee is a lifelong student.”
Not
that the schoolhouse has become unimportant – it has just become more
portable. And tied to the Soldier’s responsibility and the institution’s
role is the unit. “Lifelong learning is a transformation in training equaling
the unit plus the Soldier plus the institution,” Wilson said. “The
location of the student becomes irrelevant with lifelong learning.”
Starting Soldiers ‘young’
“Lifelong learning” and a similar term, “distance learning,” have been around a while. However, it became clear, as leaders examined how the Army needed to be successful on tomorrow’s battlefield, that it had to change the way it thought about when and how training was done. So lifelong learning has become a common thread in TRADOC’s future training and leader-development strategy.
Lifelong learning will have more impact on young Soldiers than ones grayer around the temples, as lifelong learning will start with young Soldiers at the very beginning of their Army careers.
“Lifelong learning begins with issuing AKO accounts to Soldiers and leaders during the accessions process and continues throughout a career,” said Barbara H. Walton, supervisory instructional-systems specialist and chief of the Directorate of Training’s University of Information Technology Division at the Signal Center. “When they raise their hand to serve their country in ROTC or delayed-entry, for example, they get an AKO account and begin learning about the Army.”
Transforming the schoolhouse
As Wilson said, lifelong learning is transforming the schoolhouse as well as Soldiers’ mindsets. “Lifelong learning represents a real change in the way the business of education and training is conducted,” wrote Col. Peter Farrell, formerly the Signal Center’s deputy commander/assistant commandant, in the Winter 2001 edition of Army Communicator, the Signal Corps’ professional-development magazine. The Signal School is farther along than other TRADOC schools in the process of lifelong learning and so was named TRADOC’s executive agent for lifelong learning in October 2003.
“The approach impacts the relationship of the schoolhouse and the student,” Farrell wrote. “The schoolhouse accepts and assumes the same responsibility for students at all locations, which impacts the design of training materials, the focus and responsibilities of staff and faculty, student records, funding allocations and other factors associated with learning, testing and certifying students. Lifelong learning also requests that the student accept and assume higher levels of personal responsibility for his or her education.”
A glimpse at transformation
This need to refocus was echoed by Task Force Soldier in October 2003. TF Soldier was established to work on “the Soldier” focus area, part of the 17 focus areas Gen. Peter Schoomaker said needed immediate attention when he first became Army chief of staff.
TF Soldier recommended that the Army develop the lifelong-learning concept and an implementation strategy. The task force said that the Army’s endstate should be that: “The Soldier is never fully satisfied. The Soldier continuously pursues personal mastery ‘to be all he/she can be’ through self-discipline and commitment. Lifelong learning begins at first handshake and continues through the Soldier’s career path.”
The task force also recommended that:
- Army proponency be assigned to U.S. Army Accession Command’s Human Dimensions Lab at the U.S. Army Training Center, Fort Jackson, S.C.;
- An annual Warrior Skills Qualification Testing program based on a “warrior core task list” be implemented;
- Lifelong-learning behaviors be emphasized during counseling and performance appraisals;
- TRADOC develop a Web-based Warrior Knowledge Network, with embedded links to the Army Knowledge Network; and
- eArmyU be expanded to include all Reserve Component Soldiers, regardless of mobilization status.
Lifelong learning will become the standard across the force, defined as officers, warrant officers, enlisted Soldiers and civilians. Some priorities are to train what Soldiers need and get them to their units faster; support training in units; set up training as live, constructive and virtual; and establish the schoolhouses as resources not just for a reference library but for coursework, providing reachback anytime from anywhere.
Ties to the network
Lifelong learning is closely tied with LandWarNet, the Army’s name for its comprehensive network under development. As Mark D. Farmer of the TRADOC Futures Center’s Battle Command and Awareness Division wrote in a 2003 paper on LandWarNet, “The dispersed nature of our forces today and in the future requires new and innovative training approaches for the networked environment. To train collaboration skills while maintaining crucial digital proficiency, these new approaches to training must capitalize on the potential of distributed-learning technologies. Exploiting advances in training technologies – such as interactive simulations available over the Internet, providing realistic scenarios – will result in better-quality individual and collective learning of network-enabled decision-making skills.
“…The network-enabled environment also dictates that we understand how to train and sustain critical digital skills more effectively and efficiently. Research on training of digital skills, as well as our operational experience with networked systems, shows that the unique individual and collective skills needed for the networked environment must be a critical capability for LandWarNet.”
Dynamic future landscape
If a relook at other proponents’ education holds true to what path the Signal Center is following with is captains career course, Farmer’s observation is accurate. As Chief of Signal Brig. Gen. Janet A. Hicks told her Regiment (Chief of Signal Comments, Spring 2003 Army Communicator), “Our intent is to make (the Signal captains career course) a more interactive course where officers will learn about a subject and then apply that knowledge through scenario-based practical exercises and integrated map exercises. The end result is an officer who has the tools to succeed in an dynamic communications landscape.”
Success in a dynamic communications landscape is vital for any member of the future force, since the future force is so heavily reliant on the network and communications – on information in general. (See “networking the force” Web special.) But even if there was no emphasis on the “future force” or “network-enabled battlefield,” learning would still be important to the progress of the individual as well as the community – the Army. To succeed, the Army – every Soldier, every civilian – must be a lifelong learner.