The military relies on continuing professional education as a key component to the success of its organization. With decreasing budgets and increasing importance for a force that operates efficiently and thinks critically, the cognitive tension among training, education, and learning comes center stage.

Military combat readiness has well-established procedures for gauging the preparedness of units for deployed combat operations. Such readiness evaluations typically include assessments of unit level tactical proficiency, equipment serviceability checks, manning levels, audits of logistic stocks and supply processes, and reviews of each unit…

In this study, we evaluate the feasibility of increasing the number of graduates from the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (ChalleNGe) who could be employable in one of the four military services. Because of the Department of Defense's (DOD's) and the services' quality goals, this requires that a significant portion of ChalleNGe graduates…

Militaries that take a character development approach in their moral education programs but rely heavily on authority figures as subject matter experts to teach soldiers face two serious problems. First, soldiers improperly defer to their instructors and, as a result, do not understand the moral virtues taught in class. Second, instructors are in…

Military education is held to high standards for our servicemen and women. The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to determine if significant differences existed in learning styles relative to military experience as determined by learning in a serious game environment. Study results are expected to advance the state of research in…

Purpose: Apprenticeships in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, which operate under the United Services Military Apprenticeship Program (USMAP), now account for about 20 percent of all registered apprentices in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to draw on interviews and focus groups to examine the strengths and limitations of USMAP,…

Brazil's meteoric rise as Latin America's economic superpower has prompted the United States government to reassess its strategic vision of South America and its relationship with Brazil. The next generation of US economic, business, political, and military leaders will likely be faced with a South American landscape heavily dominated by Brazil.…

The issue of assessing cadet leadership potential is a constant concern of the U.S. Army's leaders and has been since the ratification of the National Defense Act in 1916. According to the U.S. Army Cadet Command, the central headquarters for all ROTC activities, Army ROTC has a total of 273 host programs with more than 1,100 partnership and…

Vast research and personal testimonies provide strong evidence that a highly effective teacher plays a critical role in the successes of their students, particularly those at risk of underachievement. That same evidence is now being demanded of teacher preparation programs. By comparison, military preparation programs have long been outcome-based…

Higher education has a long-standing relationship with veterans. Under the auspices of federal funding such as the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Act and the 1944 GI Bill, scores of veterans and active duty personnel have used their educational benefits to earn a college degree. In the 21st century, the 2009 enhancements to the post-9/11 GI Bill amounted…

Because of the intense and unique nature of their military life, military officers face stresses that other students do not need to be concerned about when taking courses online. An institution's ability to understand these military officer students, design online programs to meet their unique learning needs and deliver valuable online curricula…

In spite of representation in enlisted ranks, women are underrepresented among top leadership positions within the military. As the largest commissioning source, ROTC plays a vital role in increasing the number of female military officers. There is substantial evidence that female cadets are retained at lower levels than male cadets during their…

Military units are principally concerned with training and preparing for operations when they are not deployed on missions. During these periods when they are predominantly stationed in barracks, they are also occupied with a host of administrative and domestic tasks assigned by their higher formation. Despite the varied nature of day-to-day…

Despite the fact that the practice of instructional design (ID) began in the U. S. military (Branson et al., 1975; Jeffrey & Bratton-Jeffrey, 2004; Reiser, 2102), there is little known regarding which design and development heuristics military instructional designers deem important to the ID process. The study reported in this article was…

Soldiers face complex challenges, issues, and decisions when pursuing distance learning while deployed. These challenges are encountered frequently while completing undergraduate and graduate degree programs on active duty overseas. Many learning programs and benefits are available and utilized by military online learners in a war zone. Education…