Military-professional self-development of officers

Military Thought, April-June, 2005 by V.P. Masyagin

K.D. Ushinskiy, the great Russian educator and thinker, in this article "Sunday Schools," back in 1861, wrote: "It is essential to not only transfer to a student particular knowledge but also to develop in him a desire and an ability to acquire new knowledge independently, without the teacher. This ability should stay with the student even when the teacher leaves him, enabling the student to derive useful knowledge not only from books but also from the objects around him, from ongoing events, and from his own spiritual experience. Once he has acquired such an intellectual capability, enabling him to derive intellectual sustenance everywhere, the person will be learning throughout his life, which in fact constitutes one of the principal tasks of any school education." (1) The idea of life long learning has always attracted the attention of outstanding minds. Yet it was not until the second half of the 20th century that socialist-economic (educational), scientific, and personal prerequisites had evolved for it to acquire a truly historic importance for the person and society, as enshrined in the concept of continuous professional education. One of the components of this concept is self-development--that is to say, the process of the conscious management by an individual of the development of his abilities and skills. The conclusions and recommendations made by a large number of researchers who have studied the various aspects of professional self-development in civilian and military specialists help to establish the conceptual and terminological apparatus for the process of self-development by naval officers (students).

Military-professional self-development should be understood as an aggregate of organizational-pedagogical activities ensuring the effective independent work by officers (students) aimed to upgrade the level of their proficiency and to develop professionally important personal qualities in accordance with the requirements set for their professional activity.

As follows from this definition, the objective of military professional self-development is to attain a specific (adopted) professional ideal of a naval officer.

It is also established that military professional self-development is a holistic pedagogical process that comprises three dialectically interconnected elements: self-instruction, self-education, and self-improvement. On the conceptual level, each of them encompasses an array of tasks whose fulfillment helps to achieve both general and particular objectives.

An experimental pedagogical study conducted at naval formations and at four naval schools showed that 12 percent to 17 percent of officers and students engage in systematic, target oriented self-development. Only one in two showed an aspiration for military-professional self-development. The results of the survey helped to identify the most typical mistakes that are made in the process of self-development. These include: the officers' tendency to overrate their military professional knowledge, skills, and practical experience; the vaguely defined objectives and the vague formulation of specific tasks designed to attain them; and the inability to choose effective methods, procedures, and means to facilitate professional advancement.

The principal causes of the aforementioned shortfalls are as follows: poor knowledge of the structure, content, and logic of the military professional self-development process; the lack of positive personal experience, and poor supervision over this process on the part of military professional training staff at higher educational establishments.

Scientific analysis of pedagogical activity helped identify a methodology for enhancing the effectiveness of self-development. It was tested in the course of the aforementioned experiment. It comprises logically interconnected and interdependent stages of an officer's self-development work and a systematic, target-specific impact on this process by the military professional training staff (see Figure).

As a general rule, effective application of the proposed methodology is facilitated by the fulfillment of a number of organizational and pedagogical conditions: first, in accordance with the established objectives, each officer (student) should be briefed in detail on the organization, procedure, methods, and tasks of the military professional self-development process; second, it is essential to shape and maintain positive public opinion at each officer (student) collective on all aspects of the problems involved; third, it is important to provide participants in an experiment with specific practical assistance in making and adjusting current and long-term military professional training programs (plans); fourth, it is necessary to constantly enhance the educational role of the entire military service process in a professional collective by fully tapping the potentialities of military professional rituals and traditions.

Self-cognition is the initial stage of self-development in the process of officers' military professional training. It is expedient to organize and conduct the work at this stage along three principal lines: self-identification, self-study, and self-evaluation.