Probing the "It Depends" Variables - 30 years for Defense Systems Management School

Program Manager, May, 2001 by Dr. Alan W. Beck

APMC was launched with coverage of the new required advanced competencies, but with less time for students to explore the "it depends" world. The time for electives and individual learning was cut. The simulations process and even the entire simulation support department was eliminated in favor of more specific classes that were more likely to have "correct" ("red-flower, green-stem") answers for the exams. The student industry study and field trip program was canceled. However, many new cases and lessons were created to help students debate how to act in the "it depends" situations of acquisition.

The days were fully scheduled, often until 5 p.m. for class, followed by significant assignments. The students had less time for library or individual learning PowerPoint slides with pre-prepared points became more common than evolving classroom discussions based on "it depends." However, the "red-flower, green-stem" video presented at the start of the course continued to give students a perspective on the spectrum of choices, ranging from single-right-answers to the "it depends" side of changing context.

As most new courses were designed in the 1990s with the right-answer paradigm of competency analysis and instructional design, the word "training" was heard a lot more and the word "education" heard a lot less. I believe that in our desire to do what was right and respond to the demand for more specific competencies, we moved more toward the "red-flower, green-stem" solution than toward the "it depends" process solutions.

How Should We Teach Program Management?

Some favor the educational approach of very specific or even rote memory teaching of the "red-flower, green-stem teacher, while others favor the "draw it how you like it" creative innovation end of the "it depends" teacher. When Malcolm Knowles was consulting with DSMC on educational design in the 1980s, he introduced his concepts of adult learning based on a philosophy of helping students develop their inquiry skills. Knowles maintained that this intrinsically motivated, inquiry-based, learner-driven process was superior for long-term continuous learning in an "it depends" environment. [15]

In a masterful display of his grasp of differing educational theories, Knowles drew a chart, which he called his "Theory of Learning Theories." The chart shows a continuum of theorists ranging from the "make the students learn" followers of the "red flower, green stem persuasion (such as Pavlov and Skinner) to the "help the students assess and take control of their learning" followers of the "it all depends" end of the spectrum (such as Knowles and Rogers). Knowles' point was that for a more complex learning task and a more mature learner, the right side of the process chart applied. In other words, a teaching approach of "red-flower, green-stem" is only applicable for very simple tasks and very low-ability learners. Figure 4, above, is a version of Knowles' chart on theory, which concludes that for a more complex subject and a more mature learner, more self-directed inquiry (Andragogy) is the solution. [16]