Exposure to that which we understand to be risky is a crucial experience for many soldiers. Thus, knowledge about how soldiers perceive and experience risk in a military context seems to be of utmost importance and therefore should be recognized in the process of acquiring military skills so as to better prepare soldiers and their units for future assignments. Still, the impression is that knowledge about risk as a dimension in military learning has not received enough attention in neither the military community nor the scholarly debate on risk-taking attitudes and behaviors among military personnel. Thus, the research-program “Learning under risk” (LuR) has been launched to describe, understand and explain the risk dimension in soldiers’ learning before, during and after participation in military operations.
This presentation will focus on how we can conceptualize an understanding of Learning as a phenomenon in relation to risk so as to develop a working tool for those who study the likes of learning when dealing with risk in general and our LuR research-program in particularly. Hopefully, increased knowledge in this field may be used to improve military organizations’ training and performance culture, and potentially increase their operational capability.
Accordingly, the presentation will utilize a pedagogical-philosophical approach to how we can conceptualize learning in a means-end perspective. For, when we talk of learning we essentially talk of one of two different aspects of learning. Either we talk of the process of learning something, or we talk of learning as an outcome of something. More so, basically, when we deal with the process of learning we talk of learning as some kind of developmental procedure or activity like for instance facilitated programs and activities (education, training, practice, etc.), applied methods (inductive, deductive, abductive, etc.), participation (socialization, adaptation, etc.) and so on. Whilst, dealing with learning as an outcome we view learning as some kind of result, effect or consequence like for instance acquiring of new knowledge, change in behavior, social interaction and so on. If we then add that both aspects of means and ends could be understood as being either known or unknown to those involved in the learning process we end up with a concept of learning that could be divided into four quadrants each displaying some distinct features. It is these four quadrants that will form an epistemological bases for a discussion of learning in relation to risk.
Learning from major events , Methodological progress in risk research
