Training transformation is at the core of building capability for an Army In Motion preparing for accelerated warfare and building a future ready training system.

Yet, as I argued in “Character Training Transformation”, as well as alluding to new systems of training, the term is suggestive of the need for individual “training transformation” – or training that transforms character.

Moreover, the foundation of all that we are and do, and a core lever for effective character training transformation, are ADF values. I am curious about what training transformation means across the whole Army training spectrum. But I am especially invested in what it means for character training and how to cultivate and develop virtues and ADF values.

So, what part do ADF values play in the overall transformation of the training ecology of Army? As well as transforming our learning systems and overall organisational ecology, Army needs training that transforms the character of the learner in the direction of ADF values. Values are not issued to recruits as part of their kit at Kapooka. ADF values need a process of development involving practice and reinforcement. This needs to be an intrinsic and important component of a foundations training continuum.

How then can we set ourselves and Army’s recruits and learners up for a career that embodies service, courage, respect, integrity, and excellence? How can we best foster and contribute to a continuum of “ADF values training transformation” as recruits come through Kapooka, spend time in holding platoons, conduct Initial Employment Training (IET), post into their units, and deploy on operations?

I have begun experimenting with a values-based training approach for holding platoons and IET learners. Aware that learners do not always have the time or access for face-to-face classes, I am also developing an online version of an ADF values learning experience accessible through The Cove. These ADF values sessions will be offered alongside the currently available “Quick Military Education (QME)” exercises which have helped inspire the idea.

As suggested in “Character Training Transformation”, soldiers cannot learn character in the classroom, and neither can they acquire ADF values from a Cove-based learning package. Yet training in a class or online can create space for learners to be motivated and to identify and reflect on where and how they want to develop ADF values. Such sessions of focused reflection can also then inform and shape the on-the-job experiences of Army’s next generation of soldiers.

Pedagogy for coaching values

Then Director General of Training and Doctrine (DGTRADOC), Brigadier Ben James stated in the article “Army Training System Transformation” that part of the review and shift transforming training is to “help our instructors become creative and engaging teachers, coaches, mentors and facilitators … We won’t be asking them to do more – we’ll be giving them the skills to do things differently.”

This trial unit-based values education package is being developed around five pedagogical processes: capitalising on appreciative inquiry of learner experience of ADF values, stories of historical and contemporary heroes, inspiring movie snippets for each value, a scenario to discuss, and homework to increase learner attentiveness to ADF values.

Appreciative inquiry of past learning

Sessions begin with appreciative inquiry. To teach on ADF values, classes start with asking learners to explain where they have seen ADF values embodied at their best. This is about letting a class teach themselves. Leading with appreciative questions also encourages attentiveness to how values are embodied in action in and around the trainees’ experience of good soldiering. In initial classes, learners have often proudly shared stories of fellow recruits and their instructors going above-and-beyond. This approach also acknowledges that learners bring insights about values from their pre-Army life. Moreover, applying Bloom’s Taxonomy from the Military Instructor Course (MIC) helped broaden use of questions to take learners to deeper levels of learning.

Stories of historical and contemporary heroes

The sessions build on the contemporary sharing of where learners have seen values embodied with other stories from historical and contemporary heroes. The plan is to narrate at least one historical example from Australian military history. I also share stories of where we have seen ADF values at their best, including narrating the experiences of learners from previous classes. The recent ADF-P-0 Character in the Profession of Arms doctrine similarly uses stories from current ADF members to reinforce character lessons and we plan to draw on some of those.

Inspiring movie snippet

The third pedagogical tool is movie episodes to identify an ethical dilemma or test of values and how that episode embodies a value. IETs are aware of most of the movies we show and so it is easy – as Colonel Brad Kilpatrick identifies in his Masters research and Cove Conference address on Adolescent Learning Strategies – to scaffold from movies and use them for inspiration.

Yet, as he suggests, we need to also critique inaccurate stereotypes since IETs’ perception of military culture is often influenced by a lifetime of Hollywood stereotypes which are not always accurate or helpful. To identify and analyse appropriate movies it has been helpful to solicit suggestions from learners themselves and to draw on books such as Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Character Strengths and Well-Being, which has a review coming up on The Cove in the near future.

Case study scenarios

After the introduction of values with questions, stories, and movie episodes; the next and primary pedagogical tool we use to practice values are case study scenarios. The scenarios are designed to present a test of integrity or an ethical dilemma (to use Stephen Coleman’s terminology from Key Concepts in Military Ethics.

The purpose is not so much to transmit knowledge about particular rules but to give trainees practice in ethical decision making and discernment of the underlying values. It is about inculcating ethical muscle memory. We invite small groups to identify the relevant issues and preferred response(s), which fosters positive feedback and peer-learning, which is in itself another of Kilpatrick’s “Adolescent Learning Strategies”.

Some of the case studies are borrowed from Combined Arms Training School (CATC) character training. Some were developed specifically for our learners for where we expect the dilemmas of operational service may conflict with ADF values. We also want to further develop case studies using Deane-Peter Baker’s “QUANDARY Military Ethics Scenario Development Tool”.

The Army includes “Ethical Decision Making” as a component of combat behaviours, but how is this best developed, measured, and evaluated? Major General Andrew Hocking – in “Preparing for the Future: Key Organisational Lessons from the Afghanistan Campaign” – recommended refining ethics doctrine; regularly monitoring organisation culture; and requiring regular and ongoing ethics, LOAC, and cultural training at all levels and testing this in “realistic and high-pressure training scenarios beyond the classroom” as part of “ready” certification. Many instructors are convinced that training with scenarios is the most relevant applied pedagogy.

Homework exercises

A final pedagogical tool for embedding attentiveness to ADF values that we are developing is homework exercises. Rather than just discussing values in classes, we want to send trainees off into their accommodation lines and other training with a task to look for or practice one of the ADF values, to journal about their experience, and then share it with the group in future character classes. For a trainee journal we are planning to reintroduce the journal that trainees received at Kapooka and ask them to use that if they still have it or give them a replacement to encourage ongoing use.

The purpose of after-class exercises is action and practice. We know that “reps and sets” helps to build that reflexive actions of good character that we need our solders to have. Janne Aalto, in a chapter of a book I reviewed for The Cove Making the Military Moral, explains ethical education which chaplains do in Finland and incorporates “action competence” pedagogy where ethics is not just taught but practised. Thus, the learning outcomes of training is soldiers doing the right thing, not just knowing theoretically “the right thing to do”.

The purpose of IET values-based character training is to set soldiers up for learning success – not just to learn the label and description of ADF’s five values but to implement them in action. Ultimately, it is about character muscle memory. Just as we drill weapon handling and tactical driving skills, we also recognise that we cannot just issue character, but need to develop it with consistent training and practice. Take-home exercise is one step of best practice pedagogy in taking ethics out of the classroom and into the barracks.

We want trainees to be asking “How might we better practice and embody ADF values in our everyday lives and soldiering?” Part of our agenda is inviting trainees to an ongoing, career-long, process of value formation. When we see trainees identify and practice ADF values, and thus exercise their ethical muscles, this is training transformation at its best.

A challenge of training transformation, at all levels, is to ensure we move beyond rhetoric to the reality of best practice. Ben James underlined this in his call for “Army Training System Transformation”:

“We’ve got plenty to do to take our training transformation beyond words to deliver a tangible, 21st Century training outcome. A vision without resources is a hallucination, and it’s important that we focus beyond words and deliver meaningful outcomes in this endeavor.”

Intentionally developing and evaluating the capability support of ADF values is an essential component of training transformation.