Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

student had to have (or achieve before leaving Lackland) a reacting level
of at least the sixth grade. hhen the ?;?!S airmen entered training,. it
was found that most of these personnel with low mental abilities and lou
reading lcvcls could complete the Fire Protection Course if given adequate
rcccdial instruction, counseling, and personal guiJance. On the job, however,
where structured remedial and personal help were not as readily available,
lox reading ability caused great difficulty for thcsc airmen in studying
and completing their Fire Pro,cction Specialist Cnrtcr Development Course
(‘SC). As a result , AK Headquarters dircstcd that an experiment be set
up to detcrminc if simplifying the CDC and adding nuJio sus?lcmcntation
would ensblc studcn:s to complete their CDC fnstcr and with better grades.
The cspcrinental design finally selected call4 far comparing three
couivalent groups of 915 airmen who had successfully graduated from t?e
h:,Sic Fire Protection Specialist Coursr at the School of Applied Aerospace
Sciences, Chsnutc. The AFQT scores for the SVS cspcrimental subjects
ranged from 20 down to 10. Upon reaching the t’icii and applying for their
CDCs, these airmen were enrolled in one of three different versions of the
Fire Protection Specialist CD,. The students in all three groups took the
same prc-test nnJ final or p>st-test. The three UK versions covered the
same basic information, but their modes of prcscntxtion differ4 as foIlok’s:
CDC 57lSlA. Airmen 61 took this course were the Control group. This
is the convcrtionnl Fire Protection S?rcislist CDC.
cnc 5711-V. This was 331 experimental, JJlUltiJ2tdiil CDC whi:h USC~ short
sentences, large, single-~olumn-pcr-~3gc print, contnincd more pictorial
natcrials th:ln the regular CDC, and used cassette tape rccorctings to
summarize, cnphasi zc , and express in different terms the information read
by the stulicnt . So new or different information xas included in the
recordings. Khilc dctailcit instructions on usrng the tape player vith the
b-ritten material arc a part of the CL’C test, the procciiurc was sorlewhat
as fOllOh’S:
11) After reading an instruction sheet on the tape player and
directions at the start of the first CIK \‘olumc, the stuJcn: studied the
first part of his CDC. After a few paragraphs, he was instructcJ to put
a particular cassette into the tape plnycr and turn it on.
(2) The tape recording rcfercnced the pnswgcs :hc student had
just wad. Speaking in turn, a group of up to four male voices then
di scusscd , summnriz~:d, restated, or reviewed the int’ormatinn in the
referenced paragraphs. r The student skis then direct& hy a rccorJed voice
to turn the Player off, i!r then returned to the b-rittcn text until hc
reached the printed instruction to again turn on the tnpr player. This
procedure was t‘olloKed throughout the entire five voiumcs of the CDC for
a total of approximately 1s hours of nuctio rcvicx of whnt the student
h.-tJ rend.
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