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A Primer on Navy Training

© Andrew Willis

A colleague of mine at the Surface Warfare Officer School remarked to me that we, as Navy instructors, aren’t in the business of adult education. He based his reasoning on the Navy’s apparent lack of the use of the basic tenets of modern adult education. But he was wrong, not because I believe the Navy does use adult education ideas in forming its training (it generally doesn’t, he’s right about that), but rather because the viewpoint that the Navy is using to form that training is different than his.

As the United States was preparing for World War II, the military needed a way to determine training needs and standardize training methods and materials, thereby ensuring every sailor, soldier and Marine received the same training, in the same way, and that human intervention wouldn’t screw it up. In response, a number of leading educational theorists developed Instructional Systems Design, which is now the foundation of most business training, and almost all military training methods.

Keep in mind that this was the 1930s. Edward Thorndike's behavioral approach and John Dewey’s constructivist ideas were competing with each other to be the leading educational theories of the time (their ideas still form much of the basis for public education discourse), and scientific management ideas were beginning to take hold as the framework for almost every business model of the time, including those in education.

The Navy hasn't really changed its model for training its members since then. Nor has it changed the way it views its members.

The Navy is rarely, if ever, focused on “improving” the individual sailor. In fact, as long as the sailor doesn’t break any rules, does his or her job, and doesn’t make too many waves, the Navy couldn’t care less about the sailor as a person. Rather, the Navy is intent on teaching the student how to do a certain thing, rather than what to think about it, especially in the enlisted ranks. As such, military training is very rigid, programmed to teach specific skills in a specific amount of time, with a specific amount of materials, to a specific level of proficiency (which is actually pretty low as the Navy figures that proficiency will come with experience on the job). This ensures that the students all act in the same way at the end of the program, and then act that way on the job, regardless of when or where the training was delivered, or who delivered it. In short, Navy training is the very essence of behaviorally based education, a la Thorndike.