Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

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diffusion, and adoption) must be intrinsically motivated toward the
common goal of improving education by means of research, or they must
be extrinsicallv motivated by accountability with resjject to accoaplishing
the common goal. ?lore often than not, a combination of both
intrinsic and extrinsic factors are at work in varying degrees in the
instances in which the Iinear change model functions’ properly.
Moving to a more specific level, and with special emphasis Upon the
mili:ary situation, there are a number of conditions that contribute
to the “rrissing link” in translating training research into training
action. For convenience they may be divided into three groups, namely,
those associated with research personnel, those associated with training
personnel, and the interface between research personnel and training
personnel.
First, research personnel. Not infrequently research personnel conceive
of a “good” study and then look for a training situation in which to do
it, without seriously considering whether the findings of the study, if
successful, could be implemented in that or any other school. In my experience,
it is not as unusual as one would wish for a researcher to
complete a training research project in which his hypotheses arc sustainrd.
and yet be unable to state in what way his f'inding can be used to improve
training or. training cf ficiency .
A simple solution to the problem would seem ;to be to state in advance for
each applied research project what action should be taken in the event
that any one of several possible outcomes of the study should result.
Carried to its logical conclusion this.should prevent the researcher’s
wondering what to do with I%.s results, upon !conplction of his research.
Sometimes the researcher does not wonder whit to do with his results
because he does not feel that it is his responsibility to point 3ut
practical implications of his research, that his responsibility is linited
to properly conceiving, Jesigning, conducting, and reporting the
study.
What about training personnel then? Are th, 1 y not eagerly awaiting any
research results that will improve their tr/aining operation? Well, yes
and no, but mostly no. They are busy with/the day to day pressures of
conducting training. Both having the research conducted in their school
and implementing the results tend to disrupt the training operation and
Pil? additional work on a staff that alrcidy feels that it is overloaded.
Often training personnel feel that the R$,D was not their project, that
any credit that might accrue from it is likely to go to the researchers ”
or to a higher echelon in the training organization, and it is just hard
for them to get very enthusiastic about it. Besides, several months often
elapse between the time the data were collected and the time the more
or less unintelligible report arrives.
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