Assessment of the Army Officer Education System from an Adult Learning Perspective

Many of the current senior leaders in the Army have recognized the importance of education to Army Transformation. In this recognition, many have also used the language of adult learning practices to describe the attributes that leaders must gain through Army education. In particular, these leaders have called for critical thinkers who can respond to the complex and dynamic modern battlefield as well as life long learners who can sustain their learning throughout their careers. Critical thinking and life long learning have been the subjects of much research and practice in the field of adult education over the past seventy or eighty years, with many new discoveries in the past decade. This research and its corresponding strategies for implementation in adult education curriculum design have profound implications for the Army education system, particularly in light of the recent call for critical thinkers and life long learners. The purpose of this monograph is to examine the Officer Education System as a sub-set of Army education to determine how well OES is responding to this call and to examine some underlying assumptions upon which OES rests.