Comparison of Direct Instruction and Problem Centered Instruction for Army Institutional Training.

摘要

A direct instruction (DI)-based and a problem-centered instruction (PCI)-based version of an Army training module (NCO Evaluation Report Preparation) were constructed and administered to different Infantry Advanced Leader Course classes. A common post-test addressing both the well-defined and the ill-defined elements of the module was administered to all students. The hypothesis was that DI students would out-perform PCI students on tests of well- defined elements, while PCI students would out-perform DI students on tests of ill-defined elements. The results showed no statistically significant differences between DI or PCI students on either well-defined or ill-defined elements. Discussion of the results addresses methodological issues in comparing DI with PCI methods, and issues in trading training cost vs. training effectiveness in making choices among instructional models.