Army Reserve instructors' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the experiential learning model in teaching mid-level Army Reserve officers

The Command and General Staff College (CGSC) at Ft. Leavenworth is a fully accredited graduate school. The primary professional development program at CGSC has been for mid-level officers. This program is referred to as ILE (Intermediate Level Education) and is taught in small cohort groups of 12 to 18 students. CGSC has embraced the principles of andragogy by Malcolm Knowles and it uses the modified version of Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) as the process to attain an effective adult learning environment.;In recent years, the U.S. Army has placed emphasis on teaching its leaders how to think critically. The U.S. Army believes that by doing so, it will develop a professional officer corps with leaders who can adapt to the many challenges and demands required of them in the unorthodox combat environments facing them now and in the future. One of the results that the Army had hoped to achieve by using the ELM was to develop the critical thinking skills of its officers in training.;The purpose of the study was to determine the Army Reserve instructors' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the Experiential Learning Model (ELM) and in the development of leaders that think critically. The second purpose was to determine whether the ELM used by the Army Reserve Instructors adheres to the adult learning theory. The third purpose was to determine differences in Army Reserve instructors' perceptions toward the ELM's general effectiveness based on demographic differences.;The study surveyed current and former ILE Army Reserve instructors regarding their perceptions of the effectiveness of the ELM and whether there were any differences in the perceptions based on age, gender, branch of Army, academic degree, number of years as an instructor, number of years using the ELM, and learning style of the instructor. There were 139 responses out of an initial convenience sampling of 361. The total number of usable responses was 127, for an overall response rate of 35.2%.;The study showed that the Army Reserve instructors perceived that the Experiential Learning Model was an effective teaching style, that the ELM helped develop the students' critical thinking skills, and that ELM adhered to some of the concepts of adult learning theory. Further, the study showed that there were no differences of the Army Reserve instructors' perceptions in the general effectiveness of the ELM by any demographic subgroup studied.