“ACTION COMPETENCE” REVISITED:

“ACTION COMPETENCE” REVISITED: ON DESCRIBING “VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE” AS PART OF PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION AND TRAINING Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

PRESENTATION STRUCTURE • WHY THIS APPROACH? • DEFINING ”ACTION COMPETENCE” • DEFINING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE • DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE • ARTICLE EXCERPTS SERVING AS EXAMPLES OF VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE • SO WHAT? • IN WHICH DIRECTION? Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

1. WHY THIS APPROACH? In the following it will be demonstrated that some of the formulations, featured in articles written by 12 Army Lieutenants and published in a military pedagogically oriented volume in the Army Academy in December 2006, may be interpreted as examples of verbalizing action competence. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

1. WHY THIS APPROACH? This is done to highlight how military communication within the chain of command always presupposes executing plurilingual professional communicative proficiency. Clearly dissecting all this exhaustively falls outside the scope of this presentation. However, teaching-based research reports will eventually contribute to the overall goal of facilitating soldiers’ professional development and enhancing their “action competence”. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

2. DEFINING ”ACTION COMPETENCE” An all-encompassing term in military pedagogy, ”action competence” refers to each soldier’s ”coping skills” and covers social, ethical, psychological and physiological domains (Toiskallio 2000a, 60). Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

2. DEFINING “ACTION COMPETENCE” CONT’D The following quote illustrates the relevance of ”action competence” in military education and training, as well as the role of ”meaning-making” in ”action competence”, respectively (Toiskallio 2000a, 60-1): Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

2. DEFINING “ACTION COMPETENCE” CONT’D “Education and training are only tools; the foundational process and target is learning and growth to become an action competent soldier. […] Before we can manage the flow of information, we have to make sense about the situations and things. It is this meaning-making that is fundamental within action competence.” Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

2. DEFINING “ACTION COMPETENCE” CONT’D By inference, this “meaning-making” element may be viewed both as promoting critical thinking and as continuously reflecting one’s own performance as an educator, trainer, and leader. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

3. DEFINING ”VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE” Coining the term verbalizing action competence serves as a verbatim description of how “action competence” necessarily presupposes language-mediated communication. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

3. DEFINING ”VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE” CONT’D In short, the coining verbalizing action competence takes two readings depending on which part of the noun phrase is emphasized. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

3. DEFINING ”VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE” CONT’D As a result, “action competence” requires verbalizing in order to be implemented: verbalizing action competence, emphasizing the noun head. In addition, “action competence” consists of communication elements, professional communicative proficiency: verbalizing action competence, emphasizing the premodifier. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

3. DEFINING ”VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE” CONT’D Self-evidently, an “action competent” soldier in all circumstances obviously needs to be able to transmit a set meaning in a given context so that the recipient comprehends the exact meaning intended. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE Since the context here deals with professional military education and training in general, and military pedagogy plus professional communication in specific, the concept of verbalizing action competence is viewed for the purposes of this presentation as being the communication features which are characteristic of colony-like professional argumentation (Hoey 2001, 91). Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D The term ‘colony’ here refers to the argumentation that breaks narrative linearity and proceeds with the help of meaning-carrying items that are necessary for the message to get through in its intended form. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D The following Figure 1 outlines the three communication and lexical-level categories used for discerning colony-like features in the article excerpts. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

Figure 1. The communication (1, 2, 3) and lexical-level categories (I, II, III) used for discerning colony-like features when accessing verbalizing action competence by listing article excerpts Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D As Figure 1 indicates, the quest for describing verbalizing action competence by viewing colony-like constituents of communication leads, first of all, to focusing on those contexts in the articles which feature argumentation that centers on key terms (1). This characteristically points to formulations which single out core terms, and build a statement around explaining these crucial terms (I). Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D Secondly, this means that the focus is on the excerpts in which the writers state that decision making presupposes verbally conceptualizing sense-based observations (2). This refers to maintaining a consensus on the use of the terms available for describing a given situation (II). Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D And thirdly, the focus here is on those instances in which the writers indicate that a prerequisite for action-driven problem solving resides in the ability to tailor ad hoc solutions on the spot (3). This emphasizes that previously created solution strategies often need to be modified (III). Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D To summarize, the three communication-level features (cf. 1, 2, and 3) take, at a lexical level, the form of verbalizations that are context-dependent formulations expressed in given contexts (cf. I, II, and III). Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D This presentation argues that when the article writers share their contextualized military educating and training expertise, and they execute their verbalizing action competence, this contributes to the goal of facilitating soldiers’ professional development. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

4. DESCRIBING VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D By the same token, from a pedagogical point of view, this involves acknowledging the seminal role of language-mediatedness and communicative proficiency in “action competence”. Contents-wise this calls for investing in research-based teaching of plurilingual professional military communication, conceptualization and argumentation strategies. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

5. ARTICLE EXCERPTS SERVING AS EXAMPLES OF VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE The units of analysis for this presentation represent expressions which in the article excerpts refer to 1) argumentation centering on key terms; 2) decision making presupposing conceptualization; and 3) problem solving requiring tailored ad hoc solutions. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

5. ARTICLE EXCERPTS SERVING AS EXAMPLES OF VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D • Argumentation centering on key terms: • Skill-level based task types • Decision making simulator • Professional soldier’s interactive roles These expression examples refer to how crucial meaning-carrying items are chosen to concisely cover a given theme. This then enables readers to resort to their previous knowledge on the issue in anticipating the turns the text takes. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

5. ARTICLE EXCERPTS SERVING AS EXAMPLES OF VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D 2) Decision making presupposing conceptualization: (4) Trusting in situation reports received that feature conceptual contents (5) Applying tactical sports moves to wargaming (6) Facilitating cognitive development by repeatedly simulating decision making These excerpts make use of the need to achieve a consensus on the terms available for use. This consensus can be achieved by narrowing down the number of plausible readings available and thus demarcate the domain of professional training that the expressions cover. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

5. ARTICLE EXCERPTS SERVING AS EXAMPLES OF VERBALIZING ACTION COMPETENCE CONT’D 3) Problem solving requiring tailored ad hoc solutions: (7) Tailoring training to meet challenges posed by learning difficulties (8) Timing the giving of feedback to enhance trainees’ self-confidence These examples illustrate re-evaluating and modifying practices. Consequently, problem solving involves continuous tailoring to meet the needs of both professional parties and given settings. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

6. SO WHAT? Pinpointing the type of “action competences” that are necessary for meeting soldiers’ set performance requirements presupposes continuously carrying out studies that corroborate or redefine existing knowledge on “best practices”. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

6. SO WHAT? When the goal is to facilitate soldiers’ professional plurilingual military communication skills, it pays off to dissect the constituents of verbalizing action competence. This paves a data-informed way for creating tools for substance-integrated teaching of plurilingual professional communication. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

6. SO WHAT? In conclusion, the following Figure 2 summarizes the role of verbalizing action competence as part of professional military education and training. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

Figure 2. The dimensions of verbalizing action competence in the context of professional military education and training Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

6. SO WHAT? As Figure 2 describes, verbalizing action competence covers implementing “action competence” in the roles of a military trainer, leader, teacher, and mentor. This also involves the processes of developing, sharing, and re-evaluating pedagogical and subject-didactical expertise as a military educator and trainer. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

7. IN WHICH DIRECTION? The overall objective is to carry out pedagogically, didactically, and linguistically oriented studies – one being currently underway in-progress – in the Army Academy to facilitate soldiers’ professional development and enhance their “action competence” from the verbalizing action competence’s point of view as well. Päivi Kilpinen, MTh, MA, Army Academy

“ACTION COMPETENCE” REVISITED: