The United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared critical thinking as a capability imperative for Force XXI. He directed Military Services to develop critical thinkers. There is limited evidence of success in terms of developing critical thinking abilities. Specifically, the U.S. Army lacks a single, generally accepted, codified…

America's sprawling system of colleges and universities has been built on the ruins of war. After the American Revolution the cash-strapped central government sold land grants to raise revenue and build colleges and schools in newly conquered lands. During the Civil War, the federal government built on this earlier precedent when it passed the…

The paper reports on an innovative approach to evaluate the level of harmonisation of Ukrainian border guards training with the common standards for border guarding in the European Union (EU) member-states. There are different types of borders and different organisational structures in border guard agencies in the EU. The authors present the…

The dynamic and high-stakes nature of education and training requires reliance on evidence-based practices and policies to make decisions about technology adoption and implementation. In the report, "Science of Learning and Readiness (SoLaR) Recommendation Report: Science of Learning Practices for Distributed Online Environments"…

"Professionalizing the Nation's Cybersecurity Workforce? Criteria for Decision-Making" considers approaches to increasing the professionalization of the nation's cybersecurity workforce. This report examines workforce requirements for cybersecurity and the segments and job functions in which professionalization is most needed;…

Camouflage fabrics are produced on a large scale for use in the US military and other applications. One of the highest volume camouflage fabrics is known as the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) which is produced for the US Department of Defense. At present, no standard measurement-based color quality control method exists for camouflage…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not there have been successful applications of lean manufacturing principles in highly variable defense IT environments. Specifically, the study assessed if implementation of the lean philosophies by a defense organization yielded repeatable, predictable results in software release schedules…

Distributed learning (DL) is a key element of the Army's training strategy, and the Army has ambitious goals for expanding the future use of DL and for changing how it is developed and delivered. Program-level evaluation of DL can play an essential role in accomplishing those goals and in identifying strategic directions for the overall program.…

The purpose of my proposal is to present a comprehensive look at the specific needs of military students who are actively deployed globally, and who are entering the "virtual classroom" for the first time. Additionally, I have drawn upon my own experiences as an educator of more than 15 years, as well as someone who has developed course curriculum…

The study examined in this article casts the challenge of enhancing military training effectiveness as one of reducing the discrepancy between maximum and typical performance. Our principal assertion is that performance measurement focused on this discrepancy can enhance performance improvement initiatives because it gives the foundation for…

While there is a recognized need for new and better ways to train soldiers to fight, many training programs developed in response to this need are used poorly or not at all. In part, the failure to use these training programs stems from the lack of established procedures for monitoring implementation and evaluating use. Effective monitoring can…

This document presents a step-by-step method for evaluating collective tactical training exercises for maneuver-arms units. The guidance presented is generally applicable to formal (external) and informal (internal) evaluations. Both types of evaluations are treated as stemming from training exercises. That is, training is a major purpose of the…

This technical report has two purposes. One purpose is to present an end product of a multi-year research investigation into the cognitive skills involved in performing intelligence analysis. The product is a "Handbook for Strategic Intelligence Analysis" developed for the United States Army Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center…

An evaluation of alternative methods--including three types of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews--of obtaining post training feedback from naval personnel is described. Using a sample of recent radio technician trainees, various approaches to data collection were employed. It was found that questionnaires provide the most cost-effective…

The United States Armed Services are planning to introduce computerized adaptive testing (CAT) into the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which is a major part of the present personnel assessment procedures. Adaptive testing will improve efficiency greatly by assessing each candidate's answers as the test progresses and posing…