ABSTRACT
The chapter describes research exploring the value of humanities embedded in professional military education, where training and education are recognized as equally meaningful, recognizing equal importance to honing hard and soft skills. With this acknowledgment, the chapter describes the applied research at Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC), one of the five component colleges of the National Defense University, educating national security professionals to plan and execute operational-level joint, multinational, and interagency operations. The institution elaborated a shared understanding of what “critical thinking” is, how to develop it, and how to assess it starting from an educational approach grounded in analytic philosophy and natural science. Starting from the military art of design methodology, the college delivered faculty development training on the value and usability of critical thinking for effective problem-solving, accurate assumptions, focused examination of arguments, and correct identification of fallacies, as main traits from philosophical and rhetorical thinking that every officer should possess upon graduation. The institution embedded these concepts into the instructional curriculum of joint professional military education through practical exercises and evaluative rubrics that included specific components of critical thinking that collectively identified the achievement of such knowledge, skills, and abilities of joint officers, in an ongoing effort to identify, teach, assess, and evaluate skill sets specific to student mastery of human aspects of behavior and decision-making requiring self-awareness, reflective practices, emotional intelligence, and the ability to reconsider perspectives in light of new evidence.
