The historical review of the Turkish military training: Suggestions for curriculum development and implications

Abstract This study aims to examine in which institutions and how the training of officers and non-commissioned officers (NCO) was carried out in the historical process from the Scythians known as the Ancient Turks to the Republic of Türkiye, and to put forward suggestions for the development and implementation of officer and NCO training programmes. The study was conducted through historical research design, a descriptive research method. It is qualitative research in terms of data. Data sources are documents and experts. Data were collected through document analysis and interviews, and document analysis and content analysis were used to analyse the data. The results reveal that officer and NCO training occupy an important place in the history of Turkish military education, and this training was continuously improved over a period of about three thousand years and passed on to the newly founded Turkic states. In Turkish history, these trainings have been carried out in an interdisciplinary design, starting at an early age, based on military discipline, integrated with real life, task-oriented, useful, with a focus on developing leadership qualities. It was concluded that curriculum should be enriched in a way to develop candidates' higher order thinking and metacognitive skills and disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful, and ethical mind areas that are thought to build the future. In addition, it was suggested that to maintain the centuries-old institutional culture, and to provide a diversity of resources for war schools, military high schools should be reopened to start education early as it was in the Turkish military education tradition. Keywords: history of Turkish military education, military education, military education program, officer training, NCO training