Far Transfer of Leadership Training: Concepts, Experiences, and Applications

Military research on training transfer has tended to focus on near transfer (i.e., measuring trainees' recall of what they have learned). In this study, our focus is on far transfer, which is concerned with whether and how trainees use what they learn. We investigated how graduates of the U.S. Military Academy Platoon Leader 300 (PL300) course described their experiences of using what they learned in PL300 in everyday settings and in field exercises; that is, how they perceived the process of transferring to other settings the knowledge and skills they learned in the course. We were interested in cadets' experiences using what they learned to address problems encountered in everyday settings. In the first phase, cadets (N=494) who completed PL300 were asked to list key PL300 concepts. Lists were analyzed using word frequency and clustering techniques. In the second phase, cadets (N=87) were asked to describe situations in which they had used what they learned in PL300 (2-15 months after PL300). Based on their written descriptions, a thematic framework was developed. The framework was used to develop the Leadership Knowledge Application Scale (LKAS). In the third phase, LKAS was administered to cadets (N=124) completing summer field exercises (10-20 months after PL300). Particular themes emerged with respect to how PL300 knowledge and skills were used in the field exercises to address different types of leadership problems. The framework and LKAS may be used to enhance far transfer of leadership training.