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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 1
Publication Date: January 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.91.11502. Santoso, T. I., Kholil, Widaningsih, T., & Widowati, D. (2022). Instructional Communication Model of Military Education as an Effort
to Achieve Center of Excellence (Case Study: Akmil Magelang). Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(1). 252-266.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Instructional Communication Model of Military Education as an
Effort to Achieve Center of Excellence (Case Study: Akmil
Magelang)
Totok Imam Santoso
Doctoral Program Student of Communication Science
Post Graduate School, Sahid University, Indonesia
Kholil
Post Graduate School, Sahid University, Indonesia
Titi Widaningsih
Post Graduate School, Sahid University, Indonesia
Dewi Widowati
Institut Komunikasi dan Bisnis, LSPR, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
Communication is one of the important elements that play a role in shaping the
interaction between educators and students. The change in the Indonesian Military
Academy (Akmil) education curriculum in 2009 was one of the most significant
changes, in which students received an academic education equivalent to a
bachelor's qualification. However, in its application the education system has not
been maximized to allow students to become experts both in the military and
academic fields. The objectives of this study are, firstly, to identify and analyze the
role of educators in the educational communication process in the Akmil to produce
quality graduates; second, to design appropriate communication patterns between
educators and students; and third, to build an educational communication model in
the Akmil as a Center of Excellence, so that they are able to answer the challenges of
the task in accordance with the changes and demands of the times. By using a mixed
method with an exploratory sequential model, the research explores information
by conducting in-depth interviews with 9 informants, both practitioners and
academics, and distributing questionnaires to 145 cadets. The results show that
there are still difficulties in applying the principle of 'completion of orders', where
a command can be given with better rationality. To that end, the researcher then
completed the findings, by formulating an instructional communication model
through the Strategic Assumptions Surfacing and Testing (SAST) and Analytical
Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods. As a result, this model puts an emphasis on the
role of the Academic Gadik actor, which creates interactivity and communication
intensity for the cadets. With this model, it is hoped that the Akmil will become a
Center of Excellence for the military with high rational abilities.
Keywords: Akmil, Indonesian Army, instructional communication, Center of Excellence,
complement of command
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Santoso, T. I., Kholil, Widaningsih, T., & Widowati, D. (2022). Instructional Communication Model of Military Education as an Effort to Achieve
Center of Excellence (Case Study: Akmil Magelang). Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(1). 252-266.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11502
BACKGROUND
The Military Academy (Akademi Militer/Akmil) is one of the educational institutions in
Indonesia, which specifically aims to form first officer soldiers at the academic level, who play
an important and strategic role in the preparation of Human Resources for Indonesian Army
officers (TNI AD) [1]. Akmil formed a civilian to become an officer army, which consider as a
complex process, because an officer is required to be able to live two patterns of life at once
while being an Akmil cadet (Taruna). The two patterns, the first starts from the process of
changing from a civilian to a soldier, and the second is a soldier with academic insight. This
means that an officer soldier is not only required to be proficient in the field of military sports,
but also must have adequate general knowledge along with the times. An officer soldier is also
expected to have the ability to be a leader.
In this case, educators play an important role in determining the course of teaching and learning
activities, or in other words, smooth communication in these activities. Educators are planners
and managers as well as evaluators in instructional activities [2]. Educators are professionally
responsible in shaping the personality of cadets through the messages conveyed, which on the
other hand are in a state of actively receiving and processing the messages they receive so that
internalization occurs within themselves.
The 2009 curriculum change at the Akmil was one of the most significant changes in the pattern
of education. This is what makes the research is important because the need to examine the
change so as to fully understand the shift in its changes. The cadets get an academic education
that is equivalent to a bachelor's qualification, which of course brings changes in the pattern of
education in the Akmil. Changes in the cadet education curriculum from old to new can be seen
since the establishment of one of the forerunners of the Akmil. However, in its application in the
world of education, especially in the Military Academy, the pattern of instructional
communication has not been fully developed as seen from the imbalance between military
education and vocational education given to cadets [3]. In this case the education system has
not been maximized to allow cadets to become experts both in the military and academic fields.
On the one hand, military education demands a Command and Control (C2) communication
pattern and on the other hand the vocational education provided demands activeness and even
critical power for scientific development [4].
Based on this background, the research questions are formulated as follows: first, what is the
optimal role of educators in the educational communication process at the Akmil to produce
quality graduates (professional, character, academic, and adaptive)? Second, how is the
communication pattern formed between educators and cadets (learners) after the 2009
curriculum? And third, what is the optimal instructional communication model in military
education, especially in the Akmil, which is in accordance with the changes and challenges of
the the age?
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Wilbur Schramm, communication is a process of interpreting codes based on the
experiences of the sources and recipients. According to Schramm, the communication process
is always a reciprocal transmission of messages between the source and the receiver. In the
transmission process, the message conveyed is in the form of a certain code or cipher which
must be reinterpreted by the recipient before sending back the code or cipher as a return. The
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recipient interprets the code or cipher based on their own experience. Similarly, the message
sent back will be reinterpreted by the source who will soon become the recipient, and so on.
Weick's organizational information theory, in this case, explains that the communication
process is essential in determining the organizational process. Communication determines the
level of certainty (equivocality) that exists between organizational actors, so that there is no
misunderstanding that leads to clarity. Meanwhile, Taylor's co-orientation theory explains that
communication plays an important role in forming collective actors who were previously still
individual. The model in this study sees that the communication process carries out the task of
providing certainty in the organization, by ensuring that the code or code chosen can
immediately turn individual actors into collective actors.
Instructional communication basically talks about how educational institutions improve the
quality of their teaching staff by involving cadets as parties who receive education and training.
Akmil is a military educational institution in Indonesia that aims to achieve the Center of
Excellence. Basically, research in this field emphasizes the need for professionalism from
teachers in order to build intelligent and responsible cadets, who are in accordance with
military needs, and can also animate military culture. Nasution's research (2012), in this case
found the need for a cultural approach to the education system in the Akmil, so that the cadets
were able to understand and be able to become Indonesia National Armed Forces (Tentara
Nasional Indonesia/TNI) leaders in the future [5]. According to Hellstorm (2011) at the Swedish
Research Council explores the concept of excellence as part of the Center of Excellence (CoE),
especially in the world of education and academics. Hellstorm shows that excellence is not just
the quality of scientific research outputs, but the entire organizational process, both
management and leadership, including whether the outputs of scientific research can affect
organizational performance [3].
The cadet education process in terms of systems theory is a system consisting of various
interacting components. These components involve technical factors (instrumental factors)
and environmental factors that interact to produce educational outputs [4]. Based on the above
process, the Akmil education input consists of 10 components of TNI education as an
instrumental factor consisting of curriculum, instruction packages, instructional tools,
instructional aids, education staff, teachers, cadets, teaching methods, educational evaluations,
educational facilities and budget [5]. Environmental factors in the cadet education process are
other factors that influence the education process. These factors include educational
leadership, organizational culture, and social environment and leadership factors and military
organizational culture which are identical to a strong chain of command.
Instructional communication, which in this case is specific to the teaching and learning process,
is a very important element and has a major role in determining educational success. According
to Myers et al (2016), instructional communication is a study that relies on logical empiricism
as its philosophical framework [6]. This approach focuses on identifying the communication
behaviors used by instructors with their cadets, where these behaviors are believed to explain
student behavior, and cadets' acceptance of positive teaching practices from their instructors.
The state of the art in this research is the communicative element that occurs between teachers
and cadets, so that professionalism is formed when faced with the demands of curriculum
integration at the Military Academy. When talking about instructional communication, we are
still in the same scope as educational communication. This research will fall within the scope of