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Roundtable Discussions at the 2019 Seminar for Military and Intelligence Trainers and Instructors

Friday, March 29
10:45 a.m.

 

Selling a Long-View Process in a Fast-Moving Culture

Bobbie Meyer-Piper
Curriculum Developer and Manager
Chief Master Sergeant Leadership Course
U.S. Air Force
Alabama

U.S. Air Force Enlisted Professional Military Education (EPME) provides quick, limited exposure to many academic topics. The typical EPME experience is a ‘touch-and-go’ approach that briefly touches on each topic for one to four hours and then quickly moves on to the next. Minimal resources are spared for EPME; institution-provided professional development consists of 105-125 days of academics over a 20+ year career. Contrast that with the evolving strategic environment, as well as the current drumbeat of Defense Department directives and authorities at all levels on the need for strategic thinking at all ranks, and you have the challenge presented to the Air Force’s Chief Leadership Course.

The Chief Leadership Course consists of just 20 academic days to overcome these obstacles which impact the mindsets of both our students and faculty. The inculcation of a critical thinking mindset needed to be tackled in a way that gets students’ attention quickly, brings the fundamentals and strategies of critical thinking to the forefront of their reasoning, and convinces them of the importance of continuing the necessary effort to cultivate this skill beyond our short 20-day course. Being under pressure (like most of us in the military environment) to do things quickly and try to show immediate impact, we did not introduce this as smoothly or in the order we might have preferred. However, the ‘flying while building’ approach seems to be getting us much closer to where we want to be, with the resistance and skepticism of both faculty and students fading away, and appreciation for the value of metacognitive strategies increasing.

 

Pumping the Brakes: Deliberately Slowing Down Fast Decision Makers

Kyle Robinette
Director of Education
Chief Master Sergeant Leadership Course
U.S. Air Force
Alabama

One of the early things implemented by the U.S. Air Force Chief Leadership Course in developing critical thinking skills was a writing assignment given to students on their first evening of the course. They are given very little guidance, being told only to write a one-page paper in any format on a topic viewed by the student as an ‘Air Force issue.’ The 11-13 person seminars then evaluate each other’s papers over the course of the next 15 days using the ‘Analyzing the Logic of an Article’ exercise right out of the Foundation for Critical Thinking’s ‘Thinker’s Guide Library.’ Each student has a different role for each paper regarding what part of analysis (purpose, inferences, point of view, etc.) they are responsible for. The author is not allowed to say anything at all (to clear any misunderstandings or misperceptions) until all others have given their analyses. The conversations that generate from this go well beyond the exercise and are a highlight of each student’s experience.

 

Critical Thinking Course as an ‘Awakening of Consciousness to Itself’ for Military Personnel

Caroline Obiageli
Lecturer
Nigerian Defence Academy
Nigeria

The Nigerian Defence Academy has started a new M.Phil. program in Security and Strategic Studies targeted at senior strategic-level officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces, with Critical Thinking and Advanced Strategic Reasoning as one of two core courses in the program. As a member of the Critical Thinking teaching team, I observed course participants’ initial display of both excitement and resistance – excitement for the seemingly novel field of study, but a skeptical resistance to perceived ‘anti-military’ principles in the course. However, continued engagement brought about expressions of resemblances between critical thinking and some military operational decision-making processes, particularly the Estimate Process. This generated my interest in exploring further the relationships between critical thinking and Estimate Process strategies as a means of identifying various ways that critical thinking values could be useful for effective operational command and leadership. This presentation is therefore aimed at illustrating these relationships with a view toward articulating the importance of critical thinking to military systems and operations.  



Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

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