I__. - International Military Testing Association

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Brooks et al (1987) did follow-up research, using the entire
76C course as a test bed, to assess further the benefits of
cooperative learning. This was actually a full-Scale implementation
test with an additional measure: recycle rate. Recycle rate is the
percentage (per course) of students who fail end-of-annex tests,
attend study hall for remedial review of material, fail a second
time, and then repeat the annex. All students in three cooperative
classes worked in groups of four - 34 groups for a total of 136
students. These were compared with students in three other,
regularly scheduled and conducted classes with a combined
enrollment of 128 students.
Results. The bad news was that the Hagman and Hayes finding
of improved test scores for groups of four compared to individuals,
was not seen by Brooks et al. Aggravating bad news was the
agreement with Hagman and Hayes that CL students took longer than
individual students to complete PEs, though here again they
finished within the allotted training time. The investigators
checked to see if a treatment - aptitude interaction might be
buried in the data. They divided subjects into high and low scorers
on the ASVAB Clerical scale, but found no interaction with training
method.'
The good news was that CL students made fewer errors in the
PEs (as in the Hagman study) and that recycle rate was reduced from
10.9% to 4.4%, i.e. 60% lower for CL students than for individuals.
Brooks et al extrapolated this saving to a year's worth of classes
(about 3,000 students) and estimated a cost reduction of $136,000.
Not a large sum in the bigger scheme of things, but if CL were
implemented Army-wide, the savings could be significant. Moreover,
achievement scores in CL classes were not worse than in the
llconventionallt comparison classes. This would be especially
constructive for CL in a computer-based classroom because it
supports assigning one workstation to 3 or 4 students, thereby
reducing the demands for expensive hardware. A potentially positive
effect, demand on instructor time, was not assessed, but may have
been present. Recall in the Shlechter studies, CL students required
notably less instructor help than did individuals. Finally,
students and instructors preferred CL to individual practice.
Outcome of the Research. The work by Shlechter, Hagman and
Hayes, and Brooks et al, as well as a solid foundation of prior
basic research led AR1 to recommend that the Quartermaster School
implement cooperative learning. Brooks (1987) wrote an instructor's
manual on how to set up and manage a CL classroom. The methodology
has since been used in AIT for 76C MOS. Moreover, if and when
computer-based instruction becomes wide-spread in the Army, this
same methodology could save millions of dollars. With multiple
students per workstation, the number of required stations could be
reduced by two-thirds to three quarters. And cooperative learning
could very well revolutionize the way the Army trains.
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