Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 122

to the 84th percentile on the posttest. The organization benefitted from the use of a valid, reliable,
impersonal instrument for feedback on teaching
success, and the students also were very motivated
to show improvement.
The assessment program also incorporated continuous observation, rubric-based assessment, and coaching
by the faculty. Observing the students during their exercises enabled assessment of their disposition to think
critically during the performance of their duties (as
opposed to thinking critically “on demand,” as measured
by the HCTA).
Training assessment level 3: behavior. The next
level of assessment in the Kirkpatrick model is behavior:
the degree to which participants apply on the job what
they learned during training.19 Assessment consisted of
surveys completed by the staffs that the teams supported, weekly communications with deployed team leaders, and evaluations of the research products developed
by deployed teams.
Training assessment level 4: results. The highest, and most important, level of the Kirkpatrick
model is the assessment of the degree to which
desired organizational outcomes occur as a result
of the learning event(s).20 The means of assessment
were similar to level 3. For example, in response to 138
organizational surveys conducted throughout 2013 and
2014, 99 percent of deployed commanders and staffs
reported they agreed or strongly agreed their supporting human terrain teams provided information that
effectively contributed to their sociocultural understanding. These results indicate that team members
performed consistently with strategic objectives, lines
of effort, and key tasks of the Army’s 2015 human
dimension strategy.21
In sum, the assessment program integrated feedback
from a range of stakeholders within the schoolhouse,
from deployed teams, and from the units they supported. The chief of training and education, the assessments
lead, and often the curriculum planner joined weekly
teleconferences with deployed team leaders to ascertain emerging needs that should be incorporated into
classes, and to get timely feedback on the performance
of newly deployed personnel.
Graduates completed posttraining surveys
after ninety days on the job. Often, their reactions
changed once they gained experience in the field.
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Finally, with this rich body of feedback from across
the organization and supported units, training
meetings became idea meetings, and the training
calendar became more of an organizational learning tool than a spreadsheet that merely depicted
scheduled activities.

Integration Consistent with the
Human Dimension Strategy
By the end of 2011, the Human Terrain System
managers had developed an essential task list for the
teams and a job-task analysis for each team position.
Additionally, all new personnel joining the program
came in as contractors, and the main organization
supplying personnel had established a comprehensive
screening process that included assessment of applicants’ physical fitness levels, job-related experience
and skills, and psychological suitability for service
on small teams operating in conditions of ambiguity,
d