Defining Tailored Training Approaches for Army Institutional Training

Abstract

This report had three purposes. The first purpose was to summarize the research literature and determine the major areas of tailored training research. Those areas were ability grouping, learning in small groups, tutoring, microadaptation, learning styles, and aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI). The second purpose was to determine what types of tailored training were most effective and under what conditions. Of the six areas, only learning styles was deemed ineffective. Each of the remaining areas demonstrated significant tailored training effects. The third purpose was to provide suggestions for tailored training research with near-term applicability in Army settings. Meeting the third purpose required discussing differences between Army institutional training settings and academic research settings which might affect generalizability of the academic research findings. Suggestions for near-term applicable tailored training included focusing on small groups, microadaptation in one-on-one remedial training settings, and ATI research. In ATI, the critical aptitude is prior knowledge. Emphasis is placed on first experimentally assessing the extent and nature of ATI in Army settings and then verifying those findings in classroom settings.

Tailored Training in Vehicle Maintenance Courses

“…Generally, one would expect these moderating variables to have less of an impact if the relationship between experience and job performance is directly linked than if it's predominately indirect. Schaefer and Dyer (2013) concluded that this research has consistently shown that prior knowledge can frequently better predict performance in a narrow domain, such as typify the technical training found in Army Advanced Individual Training (AIT) programs, than general mental ability and job experience alone. However, these findings provide little practical guidance to Army training developers and instructors on how exactly to identify or develop effective predictive measures that could be efficiently used in actual training settings.…”

“…An extensive review of published tailored training research by Schaefer and Dyer (2013) pointed out that Cohen (1994) found group interactions were impacted by both the perceived status of group members and the nature of the task or problem. In essence, the nature of a task or problem places greater or lesser emphasis on the unique skills and experiences of individuals within any group based on their relevance to a specific situation.…”

“…As Schaefer and Dyer (2013) point out in their review of the tailored training literature, previous research (e.g. Schmidt, Hunter, & Outerbridge, 1986;Chen & Paul, 2003;Palumbo, Miller, Shalin, & Steele-Johnson, 2005) has maintained that the relationship between experience and job performance can be direct or indirect depending upon opportunities to learn (i.e.…”

“…Recent research relevant to examining the potential impact of the BRITE initiative on learning and student engagement involved pairs of students watching a tutoring session and simultaneously collaborating to solve a problem (see Chi, 2009;Craig, Chi, & VanLehn, 2009). Based on Schaefer and Dyer's (2013) review, the results of this research showed that active observing was an effective learning process in these situations. As described by Craig et al (2009), active observing reflects observing a demonstration, training event, video, etc.…”

Backwards Fading to Speed Task Learning

“…However, academic research on BF has largely focused on cognitive tasks, rather than applied, hands-on tasks typical of Army training settings (see Schaefer & Dyer, 2013). This research, routinely carried out in artificial or laboratory conditions, often increased the complexity of a task (e.g., by adding steps, increasing working memory load on any given step, etc.)…”