Factors Affecting KOREA ARMY Officers’ Achievement in Professional Development Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the person and class level factors and class level factors significantly affect the students’ academic achievement in the military professional development education. Total 695 military officers were sampled and were administered a battery of questionnaires in April 2015. The sampled officers were in the officer advanced course of 9 army branch schools and they belonged to 33 classes. The data were analyzed in hierarchical linear modeling because the data structure was multilevel with personal and classroom level. The dependent variable was the officers’ grade level and a multinomial logit model was applied. The grade level was classified into three kinds (A, B, and C) and the student officers received Grade B served as reference group. The results suggested that the college graduation status was not significant because most of the military officers had bachelor degree so there was not much variance in the grade classification caused by the college graduation status. Second, learning motivation is the psychological energy that a learner starts and ends their studying behavior. In many studies, learning motivation was proven to be a strong indicator of a learner's academic achievement. Learning motivation was significant to separate Grade B from C, however, it was not significant to separate Grade A from B. There was big difference in the variance in the learning motivation between learners of Grade B from Grade C, however, there was no significant difference in the variance in the learning motivation between learners of Grade A and B. Meanwhile, learning strategy turned out to be significant both to separate Grade B from C, and Grade A from B. Many learners who make effort to store, retrieve, and apply to their learning assignment gain better grade than learners who do not know the way to apply the strategy. The results also indicate that the instructors must teach their student not only the class contents but also the learning strategy to improve their learning accomplishment. Study time is also significant to classify the Grade A from B, B from C in the personal and class-level and the result indicates that learning strategy itself is necessary but not enough to improve a learner's grade level. Logical teaching style positively separate the Grade B from C, A from B and the result means that logical instructors clearly point out a learner's strength and weakness. The honest feedback and direct guideline are effective to improve the military officers' accomplishment. The military schools must apply the results when they train their instructors. Learning motivation is the psychological energy that a learner starts and ends their studying behavior. In many studies, learning motivation was proven to be a strong indicator of a learner's academic achievement. Learning motivation was significant to separate Grade B from C, however, it was not significant to separate Grade A from B because there was big difference in the variance in the learning motivation between learners of Grade B from Grade C, however, there was no significant difference in the variance in the learning motivation between learners of Grade A from B. Meanwhile, learning strategy turned out to be significant both to separate Grade B from C and Grade A from B. Many learners who make effort to store, retrieve, and apply to their learning assignment gain better grade than learners who do not know the way to apply the strategy. The results also indicate that the instructors must teach their student not only the class contents but also the learning strategy to improve their learning accomplishment. Study time is significant to classify the Grade A from B, B from C in the personal and class-level and the result indicates that learning strategy itself is necessary but not enough to improve a learner's grade level.