Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

;Lv EXPERIMEXTAL, iWLTIMEDIr\ CAREER DE\‘ELOPMXT
CoutiSE FOR SEW WNTAL STANDARDS AIRMN
George P. Scharf
Air Trnining Commnnd - USAFSMS, Chanutb
This paper is a report on an experiment to determine if
modifying the Fire Protection Specialist Career Development
Course (CK) could improve the CDC as a t:aining device for
low ment31 aptitude airmen. ?louL-*cations to the regular
CDC included simplifying the k-ritten materials and adding
1s hours of nudio supplementation. The experiment used
three groups of Sew Yenta1 St3ndards (WS) Project 100,000
3irmcn enrolled in three versions of the CDC. The control
group took the regular fire protection specislist CDC. T!IC
first csperiment31 group took the modified CPC with nudio
suppicmentntion. The second expc ‘imental group took the
modifieci CDC without any audio supplement3tion. Criterion
for effectiveness was the final grade performance of the
personnel in the three grouns. Results indicated both
experimental groups had mean final gr3Je scores significantly
brttcr than the control group. flok’ever, there ~3s no
significsrit difference between the mean fincti grade scores
of the tuo experimental groups. Mean course completion t imcs
for the three groups were within 3 week of one another. In
this csperiment, the audio-supplemented CDC ~3s not 3 costeffective
method of course presentation.
. In recent years the federnl government /has been quite conccrncd with
improving the utilization gf the nation’s manpoouer resources. In the
late 60s and until 1971 there was considerable pressure on the milit:lry
services to accept and train personnel with’ lox mental abilities. OIlC
such progmm, Project 100,000, begnn in 1966. This program cnllcd for
the milirary scrviccs to accept up to 100,OpO cnlistcd pcrsonncl scoring
between the 10th and 30ti; ptr:cntilcs on the ArmAt Forces Qunlific3tion
Tcs t (XFQT) . These 3rc pcrso;ls in the Cate’ory I\’ ment31 group,
f
As A p3rt of Project lOO,OO!? zithln the Air Force, ;I number of cnreer
fields were sclccted for impiemcntin g the &se of large numbers of nu~rginal
Iptitudc, Sew Hental Standsrds (SYS) personnel. hbilc US airmen were a
psrt of Project 100,000, not all Project 100,000 rrirmcn wore X\IS people.
The definition of Sew Mental Stnndnrds is, Vhosc who have scores
in the 1016~ h3lf of the ?lo,.:al Croup I\ One of the career fields
sclcctcd to utilize A>15 3irmen ~3s thnt Protection Specinlist, _
XFSC 571so.
.\?lS personnel were assigned to the Fire Protection Spcciaiist Course
nt Chnnutr’ directly from Lachland. However, to merit this assignment, the
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