Military Review English Edition November-December 2014

Army Learning Concept 2015 is Under Way Chief Warrant Officer 5 John Robinson, Ed.D., U.S. Army, and Maj. Brian Davis, U.S. Marines, Retired Our enemies are always learning and adapting. They will not approach conflicts with conceptions or understanding similar to ours. And they will surprise us. and teaching methodologies. Its focus on continuous improvement consistent with ALC 2015 led to TRADOC’s naming USAWOCC a learning institution of excellence, June 2014.3 I A Model for Improving Army Education and Training —“The Joint Operating Environment 2010” n December 2012, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) published The U.S. Army Capstone Concept.1 This concept describes a vision of future operating environments, the role of the Army in the joint force, and the broad capabilities required by future Army forces. The concept posits that our nation’s adversaries will increase in number, perform military tasks more quickly, and possess significant military capabilities. These conditions will make operating environments more unpredictable and complex, leading to greater disorder. The concept also asserts that we must prepare our leaders to achieve proficiency in operational adaptability, which means we must educate them to understand their operating environments and adapt to them. How our educational institutions evolve to help create these adaptive leaders and thinkers is outlined in The U.S. Army Learning Concept for 2015 (known as ALC 2015) 2 ALC 2015 initiates an overhaul of how the U.S. Army approaches institutional learning. More important, while the capstone concept describes future conditions, the implementation of ALC 2015 is already under way so that Army forces will be prepared for future operations. The U.S. Army Warrant Officer Career College (USAWOCC) has led the way in implementing ALC 2015 guidance on curriculum 42 What sets our Army apart from our adversaries is the Army’s ability to remain adaptive. Adaptiveness gives any force a competitive advantage. As ALC 2015 states, “The U.S. Army’s competitive advantage directly relates to its capacity to learn faster and adapt more quickly than its adversaries.”4 Published in June 2011, ALC 2015 lays the foundation of a campaign for driving change to Army education and training models. According to ALC 2015, “The current [as of 2011] Army individual learning model is inadequate” to meet the Army’s challenges of outpacing our adversaries and fulfilling our responsibilities to the Nation.5 Legacy learning models lack innovation and tend to be bound by outmoded ways and technologies. Any courses that do not meet the needs of students or the Army, including traditional instructor-centric presentations based more on the academic calendar than on needed outcomes, are enemies of adaptive learning— defined by ALC 2015 as “a method that endeavors to transform the learner from a passive receptor of information to a collaborator in the educational process.”6 ALC 2015 lists specific changes that learning organizations can implement immediately to begin their November-December 2014 MILITARY REVIEW

Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 44