Training Critical Thinking Skills for Battle Command Teams

"In Phase I, CTI developed a comprehensive framework for organizing normative, cognitive, and applied issues in the field of critical thinking. The principle objective of Phase II is to develop and test Army battlefield command team training based oninsights from that critical thinking framework. In particular, we will investigate three primary issues in critical thinking training: the role of cognitive process models, the use of dialogue theory as a basis for training, and strategies to facilitatetransfer of training to new tasks or domains. Training will be developed that reflects specific hypotheses regarding these issues, and will be experimentally tested with active-duty officers at a variety of Army posts. A second objective of Phase II is todevelop a demonstration critical thinking training system that applies technology developed in previous work. The system will illustrate the delivery of feedback and coaching for critical thinking in the form of challenge-and-response dialogues."