Instructor School

I began my career as an Electronics Instructor by sitting in on the same 'Fundamental Electronics' classes that I had graduated from some months before. But this time I would have to be proficient in all the materials taught in the Fundamental Electronics School, not just the areas I had taken as a student. So about one third of the classes were totally new. I did this until the Basic Instructor Course opened up. So I sat in with students, doing the practical exercises, reading the same training materials and taking the same tests (except as an Instructor I had to take all the various forms of the tests which had different questions). I had to pass the tests with a 'missing only one at most' score. Obviously an Instructor should have a grasp of the material that they can easily pass all the tests.

I was excited when the Basic Instructor Course opened up. I reported to the training building and found that I was the lowest ranking individual in the class. There were even officers there each taking the same course Basic Instruction. There were also civilians who would be teaching Air Force courses (primarily in the Accounting and Procurement areas). My trepidation at being with OFFICERS was quickly lessened as we each introduced ourselves. Since the class was being lead by an upper-ranking sergeant it was like a buffer between our ranks. We always addressed each other with the proper rank (or 'Mr' or 'Mrs' for the civilian students). There were only about ten students in the class so at times it became somewhat informal but we were always careful not to cross lines.

In college, one of my Psychology courses was 'Psychology of Instruction' which covered methods of preparation and presentation of materials in different situations. It also covered various forms of measurement of progress and ranking of students. I had liked that course.

So here I was in the Air Force learning its methods of preparation and presentation of instruction and it turned out to follow the techniques I had learned in college. We learned about the basic concept of instruction - 'You are not a mind reader!'. The desired outcome of instruction was always in terms of directly observable behavior. There was none of the 'the student should understand ...' stuff. The final result had to be in terms of behavior we would observe. 'What does the student actually do that makes you satisfied that they have mastered the subject?'


As part of 'teaching a physical skill' I gave a presentation on changing a broken string on a guitar. I had sat in my apartment working out EXACTLY the steps and checks on changing a string. Before my presentation I had placed an old string on my guitar and started the presentation with the opening ... "You are at Carnegie Hall preparing to give the performance of your life when ..." (and I pulled on the string breaking it - I had worried that it would whip back and cut me but that didn't happen.) The presentation went well.

In another presentation which was to be a pure lecture format it had been emphasized that we had to take into account the background of our audience/students. I began with a fairly complex presentation when, as expected, it appeared that the students (my fellow instructor students) were not following. I gave a feigned frustrated sigh and ripped up my notes. I got an audible 'gasp' from the others then launched into the simpler presentation I had prepared which followed the format that we were expected to give.

After my presentation, which went over well, the instructor asked why I had done what I did. I noted that, following the background of the audience, I knew I would capture the best attention if it appeared, at first, that I was utterly failing in my presentation. He remarked that no one had done that before. I grinned.
 
The final test of the Basic Instructor School was to give actual face-to-face instruction to real students. But, as I had mentioned in an earlier posting, the presentation in the Fundamental Electronics Course was of individual student learning from training materials, often with many in the class on totally different areas. The only face-to-face instruction was with students who had worked through a subject area but had failed the test for that area. They then had to take 'Remedial Instruction' which often took place in any old empty classroom.

The students, who could be from a very wide assortment of the training areas, brought their training manuals. It was up to the 'Remedial Instructor' to determine individually what area each student had been studying and which concepts in that area they had failed to grasp. The 'Remedial Instructor' had to instantly give a presentation for each student clarifying the areas they missed. I did this over the course of one hour for three students.

After the 'Remedial Instruction' class I met with teaching instructor. He was amazed. The usual class preparation which should take hours had been compressed into mere minutes. And even though he had not studied the area of Electronics I had presented he said that he understood it very well from my quick instruction. I grinned again. I was an Air Force Electronics Instructor.