Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 29

E M B R AC I N G M I S S I O N CO M M A N D Operational Domain Institutional Domain Training Experience Education Education Experience Training Leader Development Self-Development Domain Experience Education Training Figure 2 The Army Leader Development Model Within the institutional domain, CGSOC may provide a good example of this idea in practice, since one of its major educational principles is the use of the Socratic and Adult Learning Methods.17 These educational methods are largely experiential, in that students are intended to develop or create knowledge based on concrete experience, reflection, critical analysis, and synthesis. (Synthesis, in an educational context, is a learning goal within the cognitive domain.)18 Varying types of experiential learning models have been described over the years, the Kolb method being quite influential both in and outside of the military. Within the CGSOC, the steps of this continuous process are—concrete experience, publish and process, generalize new information, develop ideas, apply ideas, and provide feedback (see Figure 3).19 Whatever the steps and how they are depicted, the fundamental characteristic of adult learning is that learning is treated as a holistic, continuous, process of MILITARY REVIEW • November-December 2013 adaptation to the world, grounded in experience. The CGSOC’s methodology corresponds to this theory, by transforming experience into created knowledge.20 Synthesis, then, in a leader development sense, is a goal and product of experiential learning; the student transforms experience into knowledge. Similarly, the leaders we wish to develop must gain concrete experience, and in a goal-oriented fashion, reflect on it, analyze it, and synthesize the knowledge the Army needs to meet tomorrow’s challenges. This process should not be limited to a classroom setting. Rather, the continuous cycle of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation must take place within the three development domains. In every case we find one obvious, common thread through each domain—the student, the learner, or the developing leader. One way to think of this is to envision experiential learning taking place in each domain (see Figure 4). 27