Conserving Instructional Training Resources through Use of the Personalized System of Instruction

Training managers in the U.S. Army face a continuing problem of meeting increasing training demands with limited instructional resources, particularly qualified training personnel. In most aviation unit flight training programs, instructor pilots (IPs) serve a dual role of academic lecturer and in-the-cockpit instructor. To reduce the amount of IP time required to administer training in a reserve aviator training program, a 19-day training program was developed that incorporates home study and features of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI). Forty-seven aviators were trained using this program. Following one year of no training, 24 of the aviators returned for refresher training using the same program. The results indicate that the home study/PSI approach reduces on-site academic training time and virtually eliminates IP time on academic topics. The results also suggest that an academic training program based on PSI can be used successfully while conserving the scarce instruction resource of IP time.