The effects of adjunct instructional materials employed outside the classroom on the performance of Air Force ROTC students.

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of adjunct instructional materials, when used under unstructured conditions outside the classroom. Adjunct instructional materials are questions and answers keyed to a text. The adjuncts for the study were prepared for textbooks used with two Air Force ROTC courses. Over 400 students at two universities served as subjects. Four experiments were conducted using a counterbalanced repeated measures design. Students used adjunct materials for portions of the text and served as a control for other portions of the text. The results indicate that adjunct materials promote learning of materials directly covered by adjunct questions, but do not contribute to application of the material covered by adjunct questions. The use of adjunct instructional materials is recommended. Further research, especially concerning the effects of various types of questions, also is recommended. (Author)