MEASURING KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION AS A METHOD FOR ASSESSING LEARNING DURING TRAINING

This paper applies the conceptual work of K. Kraiger, J. K. Ford, and E. Salas (1993) to the evaluation of two training programs. A method k nown as structural assessment (SA) was described and adapted for use i n the evaluation of a training program for computer programming and a PC-based simulation of a naval decision-making task. SA represents and evaluates pairwise judgments of relatedness of concepts drawn from th e training content domain. In the first study, SA scores of students ( determined by similarity to an expert solution) were significantly hig her after training than before but did not predict performance on a ta ke-home exam 12 weeks later. In the second study, we manipulated train ing content by providing half the students with the goals and objectiv es of the transfer task (an advance organizer) before training and pro viding the other half with the same information after training. As hyp othesized, SA scores were higher for those receiving the organizers be fore training; SA scores were also more strongly related to performanc e on the criterion task for this group. Implications of the results fo r training evaluation are discussed.