Paper prensetations
Yap Meng Hong, Billy: Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore
Wong Wai, Mun: Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore
Wee Keng Neo, Lynda: Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore
Problem-based Learning in Learning Organisation -
Oriented Military Schools: Can it Work?
To meet the demands of dynamic complexity in modern warfare, an army could not just depend on defence technologies or numbers alone to fight and win a battle. To create a strategic advantage, it needs to develop the human resources and evolves to become a learning organisation. In a learning organisation, leaders are “designers, stewards and teachers, responsible for building organisations where people continually expand their capabilities” towards organisational improvements. It emphasises on the need for collegiality, participative and collaborative leadership.
The paper discusses the rationale and implementation of adopting Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as the learning philosophy to support the learning organisation initiatives in the military schools of training using the three-year study of professional development of logistics leaders and managers in the Singapore Armed Forces as a case-study.
The paper also attempts to address the effectiveness of PBL in the military environment that is entrenched in its hierarchical structure of uniform, rank-and-file, top-down and command-and-obey culture by providing evidence from the participants, facilitators and stakeholders via teaching observations, surveys and reflection journals.
KEYWORDS: military, learning organisation, PBL implementation, PBL effectiveness
