Adaptive Facilitation Skills for Army Instructors
Abstract
The process of adapting instruction to meet individual student needs is not a trivial challenge and places many demands on instructors. The U.S. Army is one of the organizations attempting to meet this challenge. In this research, a method and instructional tool was developed and tested for supporting Army instructors within the Abrams Tank Maintenance Advanced Individual Training (AIT) program to recognize and diagnose individual learner problems, and adaptively employ instructional techniques in near real-time to correct those problems. Following a thorough review of literature, extensive quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a series of observations, questionnaires, and focus groups with instructors and students. These data helped to identify and narrow down top challenges students face in the course, associated observable student behaviors, diagnostic techniques, and recommended instructional strategies. Finally, an empirical evaluation of the tool was conducted. The findings from the evaluation were favorable and indicated that the Abrams AIT instructors found the instructional tool to be helpful especially for brand new or novice instructors. The full process, solution prototypes, evaluation results, and theoretical and practical implications are discussed. The instructional tool is included as a DVD.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1067949
Entities
People
- Evan Oster
- Frederick J. Diedrich
- Jennifer Murphy
- Krista L. Ratwani
- Louis C. Miller
- Scott Flanagan
- Tatiana H. Toumbeva
Organizations
- Aptima (United States)