Date of Award
9-1-1991
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Abstract
The Army Education Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has enrolled a large number of soldiers who are academically deficient in reading and mathematical skills in the Basic Skills Education Program (BSEP). Although a verbal courses of the BSEP are offered at Fort Bragg during the yeas, a great number of students is not raise their initial general technical scores (GT) to the minimum acceptable level of 100, and many students do not even complete the course. Because of the complexity of military operations, the technical nature of equipment and communication, and the current political and economic situation that calls for a scaled down military force, the Army requires only the best qualified and educated soldiers to remain on active duty. This study had three dimensions. The first was the development of a program to provide intervention training to those soldiers whose profile indicated that they were not successfully going to complete the BSEP. The second was the implementation of this intervention training in which students worked at their own pace on different practical exercises and were able to check their answers with the attached solution sheets for immediate feedback. The third was an evaluation of this developmental design through a comparison of test results icon two groups--one that received additional remedial training and another that did not. The major objective of this study was to develop a remedial program that significantly increased the success of soldiers attending the BSEP. The comparison of the GT test scores was made between a group of 87 nonparticipating students, control group and the participating (experimental) group of 53 students. The latter group participated in the additional remedial program and completed a written evaluation on the program. A control group of students was also established, but they did not take the remedial program nor complete the student evaluation. In addition, the progress of sone of the experimental group students was monitored by counselors with the help of an Individualized Program Plan (IPP). Evaluation tools were developed to assess the use and perceived value of the Remedial Learning Program by the instructors, counselors, and students. The control group had a range of 80 to 103, with a mean of 89.42 for the pretest scores. Their posttest scores ranged from 90 to 115, with a mean of 103 and a standard deviation of 10.43. The experimental group pretest scores ranged from 8o to 105 with a mean average of 92.67. Their posttest scores ranged from 95 to121, with a mean of 108.77 and a standard deviation of 16.74. When results were compared, the experimental group scored significantly higher. Ninety-two percent of the experimental group passed the GT retest compared to the 79 percent success rate of the control group. This study also employed elements or case study research methodology. An extensive review of literature was conducted to gather data on the characteristics of high risk students. and interviews were held with school personnel from the Army Education Center in order to analyze current practices and procedures being utilized in the existing (pre-MARP) program. Four conclusions were made as a result of this study. First, a additional remedial program and an individualized Program Plan (IPP) to assist higher risk students was feasible. Second, the remedial program was a noncompetitive instructional format that was well received by the students because it was self-paced, enabling them to learn with no competition and no stress. Third, the additional remedial program in conjunction with the IPP could be used in some formal or informal learning setting. Fourth, effective use of technology can also serve as a promising alternative of traditional methods of teaching high risk students. The recommendations derived from this study were as follows: (1) the proposed remedial program should be adopted and implemented as soon as possible; (2) high risk students should be identified before they attend the BSEP course and should be provided with additional counseling; (3) communication between counselors and BSEP instructors should be encouraged, i. e., sharing information about potential high risk students and their progress; (4) counseling for personal problems, encouragement, and general support should be provided to high risk students; (5) counselors should follow-up high risk students using the individualized Program Plan (IPP) to monitor their subsequent academic progress: (6) additional fundings and flexibility in class attendance should be provided for the training of counselors and instructors: (7) responsibilities for reducing the dropout rates should be shared by the counselors and instructors (8) stricter adherence to the attendance policy should be emphasized and reinforced by the company commanders: (9) frequent scheduled visits and briefings to the units by the counselors should be encouraged: (10) the Army Education Center should provide handouts with several tips on relaxation and test taking improvement to students who demonstrate test anxiety: (11) distant learning areas should be explored as a means of supplement to teaching high risk students; (12) results of this study should be provided to counselor and BSEP instructors for information and implementation.