Publication:Sea Talk Summer 2008/Navy’s optimal learning culture
By CMDR Drew Hardy – SO1 Learning Culture Inquiry Team
Navy training is changing as part of a Defence-wide plan that is creating an ‘optimal learning culture’.
Based on recommendations in the 2006 Learning Culture Inquiry (LCI) report, the change centres around cultivating positive learning relationships in our schools and establishments and reducing the risks of unacceptable behaviour.
The aim is to improve the effectiveness of Navy training, whilst helping Defence attract and retain the people it needs by establishing a more supportive environment for learners and the staff who instruct and mentor them.
Navy performs well against all the registration standards of the Australian Quality Training Framework. It also has a long established reputation for providing the Fleet with highly skilled, motivated officers and sailors.
The move towards an optimal learning culture builds on these achievements by focussing on:
- Navy’s values of honour, honesty, courage, integrity and loyalty;
- The needs and preferences of individual learners and helping them to achieve the required standard;
- Cultivating positive learning relationships through effective instructional, coaching and interpersonal skills under-pinned by appropriate personal behaviour;
- Building team effectiveness through cooperation, mutual respect and acceptance of diversity;
- The continuous development of trainers’ leadership and technical skills, including an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of learners and how to apply this knowledge;
- Developing the cultural and community awareness needed to remain relevant to the broader Australian society and the international community; and
- Reinforcing the values of compassion and empathy for others.
Navy training has worked hard over the last 18 months to build its optimal learning culture.
Orders and instructions are being developed or amended. Codes of conduct for both learners and trainers, for example, are being rewritten to increase the focus on upholding and promoting Navy values. Detailed guidance has also been developed on the conduct of ‘tough training’ and instructions drafted covering personal behaviour between learners.
These and other policy amendments are being supported by changes to courses. Increased emphasis is being placed on strengthening the personal development of trainers and learners, partly by shifting the emphasis from compliance to attitudinal change and partly by improving people management skills in key areas. These changes have been complemented by strengthening measures of attitudinal change.
Embedding an optimal learning culture across Navy training will encourage life-long learning and support the Smart Navy initiatives foreshadowed by the Chief of Navy in his New Generation Navy address.
Many of the themes in the optimal learning culture are familiar and in many respects the move towards an optimal learning culture is just another step down a road Navy training has been travelling for several years. It is nonetheless and important step for our future.
For further information on the LCI and its implementation in Defence, go to http://intranet.defence.gov.au/pspg/sites/lci/comweb.asp?page=34227.
