FORT SILL, Okla. -- To better prepare the Fires Center of Excellence for the educational opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, Fort Sill held its first Intellectual Warrior Conference April 12 and 13.
The conference primarily brought together FCoE leaders from Maj. Gen. David Halverson, FCoE and Fort Sill commanding general, and his staff down to battalion commanders and command sergeants major. Discussions centered on developing learner-centric courses and getting away from the "death by Powerpoint" mode where students read slides, memorize facts and complete tests, a form of learning that demanded little of students.
Halverson reminded all of the conference's significance. He said despite 32 years service he is still learning every day and keeps an open mind to new ideas. He said everyone needs to apply what they know and present it in a way that makes it exciting for people to gain knowledge. He likened the conference to words he shares with new officers going through pre-command courses. He said they need to gain the perspective of how they are going manage the responsibility of 600-700 Soldiers placed under them and how they will lead them to meet their war fighting objectives.
"How are we going to change training so we apply ourselves better'" he said. "Commanders you own this, this is your battle space, and your output is certified 13 [field artillery] and 14 [air defense] Soldiers, lieutenants and captains.
"You're shaping their intellectual foundations to think and to know. It's all about them gaining knowledge and thinking critically to operate on today's battlefield," he said.
Coaches/mentors
Another aspect of the conference was to build in educators the abilities to facilitate learning and engage students as a coach and mentor.
"We have to develop the intellectual capacities of our Soldiers and civilians for them to think more critically, be able to problem solve and go places they haven't been challenged to go before," said Dr. Casey Blain, Fort Sill Staff and Faculty Development Divsion chief. "The Army has a great history of training, and we want to enhance that taking people to a higher level of thinking will help us get to Army Learning Concept 2015."
ALC 2015 seeks to develop Soldiers and leaders who think and learn faster and better than they enemies in an era of persistent and ever changing conflict.
"The intent is to better engage Soldiers and build more rigor into their training such as having them give presentations or performing other activities," said Blaine. "Students who are involved learn better."
For reference purposes, the conference was videotaped for the general assembly speaker presentations. Breakout sessions with smaller groups were not taped to keep the setting informal and give participants a sense of freedom to ask the speakers questions and encourage dialogue.
"There was some contentious moments, but that's to be expected," he said. "We wanted to give commanders a step up on how does all this work and what's their role in it."
Talking with the speakers enabled conference participants to listen and learn from people who have actually employed the new learning and teaching techniques, have faced obstacles and failures, and realized successes.
"More than anything else; using these techniques enabled people to gain efficiencies in time and raise the bar to a higher level," Blaine added.
Outcome based training
A lot of discussion focused on outcome based training and education. Blaine said as Soldiers deploy doing jobs that are new to them changes to the way training is conducted can provide them the skills needed to adapt and overcome.
"If we teach Soldiers and civilians to develop critical thinking and problem solving capabilities that raise their knowledge level, when they get into situations and don't know how to do a particular task, they can draw on this training," he said. "Adults learn by tying to things they already know. So, if they already know critical thinking and problem solving, they can apply these learned skills and solve problems. The remedy might not be perfect, but it will be a far better outcome compared to doing nothing, because they didn't know how to do a particular task."
Lt. Col. Michael Magee, strategies, analysis and integration chief, said the conference was great for the FCoE and very timely.
"What was initiated here, if they take back what's proven to them can work, you'll see impact on privates and lieutenants begin to change in a significant way," he said. "Based on feedback this should have a dramatic effect on ongoing training here for some time to come."
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