Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 32

it cannot be regained. If the incompetent instructor cannot be made competent, he or she must be
removed to preclude further damage to an organization’s credibility.
Building trust. The second component to effective education is trust. Trust can be defined as “the
willingness of a party (trustor) to be vulnerable to
the actions of another party (trustee) based on the
expectation that the trustee will perform an action
important to the trustor, regardless of the trustor’s
ability to monitor or control the trustee.”13
Unlike credibility, trust is not established in the
cognitive domain; it is a visceral response and is part
of the affective learning domain for each learner.14
The response varies from learner to learner. It is not
an instantaneous feeling but something that grows
or diminishes as there is contact with the instructor
over time. The affective domain regulates the quantity of the education and training that is retained by
the student. A student buys into the learning process
emotionally. Instructors and curriculum they view
as unimportant will likely result in little long-term
retention of the curriculum. Like credibility, trust
can be grown or lost. If there is no trust, either in the
educational material or the instructor, independently
or collectively, learning can be diminished.
Over time, several factors have had an impact on
these crucial components of credibility and trust.
Today’s Army is moving toward blended learning
in the education and training process. While Army
training is often exceptional, in order to fully develop
its soldiers, the Army instituted a universal training
program. Training provides a programmed response
to a set of stimuli.
Programmed training results in a mechanized,
universal answer to standardized problems. Part of
the solution for combating sexual misconduct has been
mandatory training, but anecdotal evidence suggests
that many soldiers feel that training is a “check the block”
type exercise. This mindset has a direct impact on the
Army’s mandatory training programmed response to
sexual harassment. It does not require students to engage
with the training. Attendance is often the only thing that
is measured. Clearly this is not the desired outcome of
those higher up in the chain of command. Whether you
call it training or education is immaterial. Behavioral
change within the student is the desired outcome.
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Army Learning Model (ALM)
Making education better is the goal of every educator.
With effective education, it is hoped that the military
will make a significant reduction in improper sexual
contact. To that end, the Army has embarked on an
expensive but comprehensive plan to revolutionize the
learning process by adopting a new educational model. It
redirects every classroom to be learner-centric, to use facilitated discussion in small groups, and to use a blended
learning curriculum making extensive use of a technology-based infrastructure.
This transformation has enabled substantial financial and space savings because much of the information
that used to be printed in cumbersome books and
manuals can now be stored on a device that can fit into
a pocket. In addition, those devices can quickly access
information from any place where wireless technology
is available. Some training is delivered solely by distributed learning. However, many classrooms still have a
living instructor who interacts with distributed-learning portions of courses but primarily delivers training
and education live and on the platform.

Restoring Institutional Trust
The first step for a leader to begin to rebuild trust is
through demonstrating the fourth tenet of the Army
Values, selfless service, which is identified through the
Army’s LDRSHIP acronym.15 Students must feel like the
instructors are serving the student and the instructors’
sole purpose is to serve the students by providing the
best training or education possible.
In 30 years of instruction, this writer has seen some
instructors who teach as if they were doing the class a
favor by sharing what knowledge they have accumulated. Instructors serve students, not the other way around.
Students should feel that the instructor is there to provide assistance and support in their endeavor to complete training and education. Selfless service means that
inspirational leadership will be a conspicuous feature of
instructor performance so students will be inspired to
acquire information and values held by the instructor.
Second, instructional leaders must demonstrate professional managerial skills. It is paramount that instructors understand their actual duties. Humility is a part
of this framework. Instructors should never develop
a God complex but should recognize their personal
fallibility. No instructor possesses all of the knowledge
March-April 2015  MILITARY REVIEW