fi=Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu |sv=Försvarshögskolan |en=National Defence University|
https://www.doria.fi:443/handle/10024/72633
2024-03-25T16:32:47ZImproving pilots’ tactical decisions in air combat training using the critical decision method
https://www.doria.fi:443/handle/10024/188775
Improving pilots’ tactical decisions in air combat training using the critical decision method
Mansikka, Heikki; Virtanen, Kai; Lipponen, Tatu; Harris, Don
In fighter pilot training, much of upgrade pilots’ (UPs’) learning takes place during mission debriefs. A debrief provides instructor pilots (IPs) the opportunity to correct situation awareness (SA) upon which the UPs base their tactical decisions. Unless the debrief is conducted with proper depth and breadth, the IPs’ feedback on UPs’ SA and tactical decision-making may be incomplete or false, resulting in poor, or even negative learning. In this study, a new debrief protocol based on the Critical Decision Method (CDM) is introduced. The protocol specifically addresses the SA of UPs. An evaluation was conducted to examine if a short CDM training programme to IPs would enhance their ability to provide performance feedback to UPs regarding their SA and tactical decision-making. The IPs were qualified flying instructors and the UPs were air force cadets completing their air combat training with BAe Hawk jet trainer aircraft. The impact of the training intervention was evaluated using Kirkpatrick’s four-level model. The first three levels of evaluation (Reactions, Learning and Behaviour) focused on the IPs, whereas the fourth level (Results) focused on the UPs. The training intervention had a positive impact on the Reactions, Learning and debrief Behaviour of the IPs. In air combat training missions, the UPs whose debriefs were based on the CDM protocol, had superior SA and overall performance compared to a control group.
2024-03-25T14:29:13ZIntroduction to the Special Issue : Patriotism, Public Opinion, and National Defense in Estonia, Finland, and Sweden
https://www.doria.fi:443/handle/10024/188774
Introduction to the Special Issue : Patriotism, Public Opinion, and National Defense in Estonia, Finland, and Sweden
Hart, Linda; Kaarkoski, Miina; Tallberg, Teemu
How do political communities stick together as polities in times of crisis? What is needed to motivate their citizens work together to deter threats, maintain state monopolies of violence, and sustain different forms of military alliances and cooperation? The answer, in large part, is patriotism. Patriotic thinking—both as a sentiment and as an element of political ideology—is a central tenet in building states and conducting state affairs. From the perspective of political philosophy, patriotism is often characterized as love for one’s country and as an affective relationship imbued with such emotions as pride, honor, and appreciation for the collective that it represents. Scholars from the tradition of republican patriotism argue that such love may be directed toward political institutions and that it helps form a way of life that sustains the liberty of a state’s population. This stands in contrast to nationalism, which regards the same object of veneration, the homeland, with less tolerance of heterogeneity and political disunion. Both patriotism and nationalism are conceptualized in a variety of ways and can take on meanings as varied as benign civic unity and exclusionary chauvinism. Patriotism is often conceptualized as a form of civic virtue, stressing the way it prioritizes the community ahead of the individual.
2024-03-25T13:09:58ZFostering Fortitude : Patriotism and Resilience as Civic Piety in Textbooks of National Defense Courses in Finland, 1967–2018
https://www.doria.fi:443/handle/10024/188773
Fostering Fortitude : Patriotism and Resilience as Civic Piety in Textbooks of National Defense Courses in Finland, 1967–2018
Hart, Linda
This article analyzes “National Defense Courses” textbooks that were used to disseminate defense information to the political, social, and administrative elite in Finland. Textbooks from 1967 to 2018 provide qualitative historical and sociological data, showing how Finland has prepared for war and other security contingencies for the past five decades. The main shift in fostering the population’s allegiance to the state has gone from addressing the management of political heterodoxy as a patriotic endeavor to one of cultivating apolitical resilience in the face of adversity. Both patriotism and resilience appear in the texts as forms of civic piety, in which people’s individual preferences give way to collective interests.
2024-03-25T12:53:40ZWhy is interaction key in online learning? Initial observations from UNPOSMC blended learning course
https://www.doria.fi:443/handle/10024/188711
Why is interaction key in online learning? Initial observations from UNPOSMC blended learning course
Oittinen, Tuire; Rautiainen, Iira; Haddington, Pentti
Planning future activities, tackling problems, and progressing work-related tasks and activities together with others always involve and require talk and interaction. The joint progression of tasks and the establishment of shared understanding is particularly important in situations that involve or attempt to resolve crises. The PeaceTalk group, based at the University of Oulu, is a research team composed of experts in language use and interaction. The group has collaborated with FINCENT since late 2016 (see Haddington et al., 2020) and studied interaction in various crisis management training courses (Haddington et al., 2021; Rautiainen et al., 2021; Oittinen, 2021). The researchers in PeaceTalk use qualitative, video-based methods and ethnographic field notes to study the trainees’ conduct during their work. Video recordings are crucial in forming a truthful and reliable perspective on the unfolding of activities in the courses. The analyses focus on what trainees do, and how they do it through talk and other actions, such as gestures, facial expressions, and body movement. The aim is to identify and describe in detail the visible and joint interactional practices that are used to progress the teams’ tasks and activities, and how the participants establish a shared understanding as part of these activities (see, e.g., Haddington & Oittinen, 2022; Kamunen et al., 2023; Oittinen, 2022; Rautiainen, 2022; Rautiainen et al., 2023). Technology- or video-mediated environments present a unique context for interaction and collaborative work, and social interaction research in such settings is still relatively scarce (but see Stokoe et al., 2021). Therefore, the possibility to participate in and conduct research on the Basic phase of the UNPOSMC course in autumn 2023 offered us an exciting opportunity to fill in this gap.
Our interests and aims regarding the UNPOSMC course were multifaceted. First, we aimed to collect recordings from the online sessions for our research and to gain a comprehensive view of this unique learning environment, which would then be transformed into a series of analyses and research papers. Second, we were interested in the practices and guidelines the course organizers had recently developed; we had heard great things about the course (e.g., regarding the carefully drafted design for online learning) and took it as an invaluable learning opportunity. Our work gained significant support from the motivated group of course designers, coordinators and instructors, who welcomed us in their meetings already in the preparation phase of the course.
Video recordings were made in the Basic (i.e., online) phase of UNPOSMC. We used screen capture software to record the lectures and syndicate work that took place online. In addition, we video-recorded the events in the course instructors’ coordination room in Santahamina. At the outset, we had the following questions in mind:
1. What kind of instructors’ interactional practices in the online learning environment(s) enhance team building and teamwork?
2. What features of interaction support equal participation, joint negotiation, and effective decision-making?
3. How do interactional practices change or develop during the Basic phase?
4. How are diverse linguistic and professional expertise visible in interaction, and what is their impact on group dynamics, collaborative thinking, and learning?
2024-03-18T10:16:20Z