Special literacy activities in the Danish armed forces Bendt Petersen

The background As early as I94O-43, soldiers in the Danish armed forces expressed their wishes of receiving--alongside their military education--education in purely civilian disciplines. At the local level, many of these wishes were complied with, and education was provided partly during duty hours partly during the soldiers' leisure time. The idea of this kind of purely civilian education carried on after the end of the Second World War. Therefore, some special educational experiments were initiated by the central authorities in the autumn of I952 and, in x953, obligatory instruction during duty hours was introduced, which was to comprise civics and foreign affairs studies as well as elementary and/or vocational topics and topics of special interest. T h e objective was to mainrain and, ff possible, develop the soldier's elementary vocational and/or professional background. Four hours per week were allocated for this instruction. In step with changes that take place in any

Ben& Petersen (Denmark). Graduated as an officer from the Army Officer School in x95o, and as a psychologist from the University of Copenhagen in x959. Principally occupied with teaching, testing, evaluating and pedagogical psychology at the Defence Centre for Leadership. Has carried out research in the field of social psychology inside the armed forces.

society, a great part of these courses have gradually been discontinued. This does not, however, apply to the teaching of Danish. This was offered to soldiers with more or less pronounced dyslexic problems. T h e instruction courses were very popular with the soldiers and obviously satisfied a more or less latent need. They were therefore maintained but in a form in which only half the instruction was to take place during duty hours, while the other half was to take place in the soldiers' leisure time. At the same time, it was decided that instruction was to b e voluntary and that certain criteria were to be met for admission to the classes. Hereby the same admission regulations were, to a great extent, to apply as for similar instruction in civilian life.

Indications T h e scheme was administered by the Defence Centre for Leadership (FCL), with instruction free of charge. 9 In the years that have elapsed since then the F C L has followed the development in the area and has, inter alia, noted the following: In I975, 5.6 per cent of the soldiers were entitled to receive this instruction. In the years that followed, the corresponding percentages were as shown in Table I. As can be seen from Table x, the percentage has increased throughout the years and is now stabilized at around x4 per cent.

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TAaLH 1 Year

Percentage

1976 1977 I978 1979 198o 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985

7.I IO.O x2.3 11.6 12.7 14.6 14.4 t3.9 I3.9 z3.9

It is not possible to take these figures as an indication of the situation for the population as a whole. Only a quarter of Danish youth become soldiers, and the figures only apply to the male population of the country. Furthermore, it is generally assumed that there are more men than women with reading and writing disabilities.

Definition As for the definition of reading/writing disabilities, we have chosen to define reading or writing disabilities (or both) as simply meaning that the individual does not have comparable abilities in these areas as others of the same age. It does not absolutely mean that he or she is more backward intellectually than the others. It may very well be the case that the other intellectual functions are equivalent to everyone else's. I f this is the case, it may be a question of a neurologically conditioned disability that need not be permanent, but a condition that, to a great extent, can be improved, if adequate reading and writing methods are adopted. In other cases, it may be more psychologically conditioned circumstances that have caused the handicap. It may, for instance, be due to questions such as development speed, illness with subsequent long absence from school, conditions in the home, frequent changes of school or a vulnerable personality. Finally, the dis-

ability can, of course, be rooted in the intellect itself (i.e. low general IQ). Apart from the neurologically conditioned cases, it can be said as a general rule that individuals with reading and writing disabilities belong to groups often referred to as residual groups, i.e. those that have not benefited much from the education system and which have only received very brief schooling. They are often made up of individuals who, as far as many of them are concerned, have not been aware of, or have not wanted to realize that they had, a handicap, and who have not for that very reason turned up for the instruction which was offered them. i

i

Legislation When conscripted to military service, the soldiers are invited--in accordance with the legislation in force---to take part in educational activities, the aim of which is to remedy or limit the effects of their handicap. In accordance with legal stipulations, the instruction is to be carried out if at least two participants have enrolled, and the number of participants must not exceed six in each class. Furthermore, when fixing the number of participants, the seriousness of the participants' handicap must be taken into consideration. A minimum of twenty hours of instruction is to be offered, and there must be a reasonable relationship between the aims of the instruction and the number of lessons.

Procedure But how do we detect those soldiers who are m be invited to accept an educational offer of this kind? During their first week in the service, soldiers are submitted to tests in Danish and arithmetic. One of these is a spelling test of twenty-seven words. Statistical studies have shown that soldiers who have made twenty or more errors in this test more or less meet the criteria that diagnostic tests require in order to

Special literacy activities in the Danish armed forces

identify individuals with reading and writing disabilities. At the same time, it appeared that the inclusion of the results of a reading test would only increase the number of persons identified as having reading and writing disabilities by such a small percentage that is was decided to use the spelling test as the sole criterion. These findings are extremely fruitful, as the spelling test mentioned can be used as a group test which saves much time in identifying the soldiers in question. However, the test is not sufficiently diagnostic, and demands that the teacher--at the beginning of his work--identify the specific handicap and thus the method of instruction required by other means. It can therefore be said that the armed forces only carry out the investigative work, while the teachers--before the actual teaching begins--carry out the actual diagnostic work. i

Interviews The FCL has administered this instruction since x973, and in order to acquire knowledge in the area, it has looked into two state of affairs. Firstly, in 1978, the FCL was interested in the identification of those soldiers entitled to receive instruction. Secondly, in I98I, it was interested in receiving feed-back from those soldiers who had accepted the offer and who had thus received instruction during their military service. The first study dealt with intelligence, education and geographical distribution, while the second took the form of an interview which was to elucidate various aspects about the instruction, etc. Before we go further into the results of these interviews, it is necessary to mention yet another intelligence test called the Borge Prien's Test (BPP). It is a special test in Danish, which is only used for military personel. The test contains seventy-eight questions, and the number of correct answers are added up to give the BPP rough score, which is then divided into intelligence groups with I as the lowest and 9 as the highest group.

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Finally, the soldiers' civilian education is coded as follows: I. Seven-year primary school (possible subsequent education not known). 2. Seven-year primary school plus course (nontechnical, not advanced). 3. As I, followed by vocational training (technical school, etc.). 4- Non-examination middle school or attendance at middle school without having taken the final examination (with or without supplemented elementary course). 5. Middle school examination (at the most supplemented by courses as under 3). 6. Real examination or general preliminary examination or uncompleted upper-secondary school (at the most supplemented by courses as under 3)7- As above, but supplemented by higher vocational or commercial education (school of economics, business administration and modem languages, teacher training (non-university) or the like). 8. Upper secondary-school-leaving examination or supplementary examination courses at upper secondary level (with or without further education as under 7)9- Higher education (academic training, degrees in Economics and Business Administration, examinations from various other institutions of higher education, officers' training schools). After the introduction of the nine-year primat3, and lower-secondary school, this code was changed, but it applied when the study was carried out. ii

Results of the interviews The following is a brief survey of the results of the interviews carried out. The poor spellers are primarily found in those groups with the poorest educational background. 49 per cent belong to groups 1-3, 45 per cent to groups 4-5, and only 5.9 per cent to the four highest groups. This provides evidence of a clear connection between poor education and a poor spelling result.

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In the light of the relationship between education and intelligence, it is not surprising that it also turned out that the poorer spellers and those with low intelligence scores were found in the lowest groups. 69.9 per cent of them belonged to intelligence groups I-4 and only 29.3 per cent to groups 5-9. There has also been evidence of a very clear connection between poor results in the intelligence tests and a poor result in the spelling test. A finding like that mentioned above naturaIly gives rise to the interesting and perennial question of causal relationships. This discussion however, does not belong within the framework of this article. A final question which was studied was: Is the environment in which the individual grows up a conctu~ent cause for the disabilities? In order to answer this question, the group was divided up into soldiers who had grown up in (a) the capital and other large dries, (b) in provincial towns, and (c) in rural districts. This gave, to a certain extent, an impression of the sort of school they had attended. The result was that the environment did not seem to have any influence on the lack of spelling ability.

The pupil group As already mentioned, instruction is voluntary. After having identified the soldiers who are entitled to receive instruction, the next step is to find out who will accept the invitation which is done as follows: When the results of the spelling test appe~, the unit calls the soldiers together and explains to them that their level of attainment in Danish is such that they are entitled to receive instruction in the subject. A detailed explanation is given of the content of the instruction course, they are informed who is going to be the teacher and where and when the course will take place. The soldiers are then given an opportunity to consider the matter for a couple of days and to deride whether they want to accept the invitation. Here it appears that no matter which edu-

cation or intelligence group the soldiers belong to and no matter which environment they have grown up in, about half of those from each of these groups feel that they have a need for instruction and therefore accept the invitation. In continuation of the study which has been briefly described above, the F C L made more detailed interview-study in x98I which dealt with the pupils, teachers, the instruction as such and the personal benefits to be gained from it.

Profile of the pupil group By 'pupil' we mean those soldiers who accept the offer of instruction. Fifty-one of these were interviewed, and the F C L - - f r o m these interviews--noted a greater openness towards the question than expected. The soldiers were as a whole open and frank, but questions were raised as to whether this was something that would be recorded somewhere. Fears about such records do exist, not least because this is a case of young people who in other ways lead a normal life. But, as mentioned above, the soldiers were on the whole open and frank. The interviews proceeded easily and in a relaxed atmosphere, and a great number of statements were made about the feelings and experiences of these young people in connection with their handicap. They can be summarized as follows: It is young people in the 2o-25 age-group who here receive an offer of spelling instruction. They had so far experienced their handicap to a greater or lesser extent. They felt that here they were given the help they needed. They seemed mature and concerned about the future. Some had difficulty reading a newspaper. They had problems in understanding the meaning of the text and, where this was the case, they would often can-y on reading in order to arrive at the meaning of the words through context. Others had difficulties in learning the theoretical part of the driving test, but here they had received help through the theory being recorded on tape. As far as most of them were

Special literacy activities in t h e D a n i s h a r m e d forces

concerned, they wrote very rarely or not at all. For some of them, this was because they did not have anybody to write to or because they did not need to do so, for others it was because they had difficulties with spelling and felt that they could not express themselves satisfactorily. In some cases it was however necessary to write, for instance in connection with applying for apartments etc., and in such situations they had to get help from others, usually their parents. One of the pupils said that he spelt the words as he pronounced them. As far as most of them were concerned, they had received special education at school, and while some stated that it had helped them, others said that at the time they had not been mature or motivated enough. The following statements were made to this effect: 'I was busy with other things t h a n reading at school.' 'I was n o t m a t u r e enough to get anything out o f it, b u t it went better in t h e u p p e r classes.' ' M y maturity was n o t w h a t it ought to be.' ' I t ' s n o w you've got to start because, if not, it'U be t o o ~ate.' ' I ' m m o r e goal-oriented today.' 'It is u p to o u r s e l v e s - - a n d n o b o d y else.' ' N o w I work at it, and it helps.'

The above quotations clearly underline the mature and realistic attitude to the problem which seems to exist and is supplemented by a certain goal orientation which is, inter alia, expressed in the desire the soldiers have for the instruction course. They for instance find it very important to improve their spelling and several indicate that it was for that reason that they enrolled for the course. The following statements show this: 'I accepted the offer as I w a n t e d to improve m y spelling.' ' I t gives self-confidence to be able to spell right.' ' I ' d like to learn to be better at spelling. You feel a bit d u m b . ' ' A lot o f people feel a bit embarassed about n o t being able to spell well.' 'I want m o r e direct spelling exercises.' 'I enrolled for the course as this could help m e improve m y spelling.'

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Other reasons were, of course, also mentioned. Generally, it can be said that the instruction was characterized as a good chance offered at the right moment.

The refusers T h e F C L also talked to the soldiers who turned down the invitation. One of the reasons for this seemed to be the aspect of duty which acceptance would imply. Several indicated that they did not want to spend their leisure-time learning. Most of them said, however, that it was a good chance for those who felt like it and had the time. A few of them expressed their regret that they had not accepted when the offer had been made.

The teachers The majority of the teachers who carry out this special education all over the country are women who have either supplemented their teacher training in this subject or who have received special training in it. They are very committed to their task and have several years' experience in the teaching of soldiers. This inter alia means that much experience is gained from this special education and that the teachers have a good knowledge of the military system to which the soldiers belong. It goes without saying that this facilitates the communication between the places of service and the teachers--in favour of a practical implementation of the instruction. At the pedagogical level, it means that the teachers have a good knowledge of the group of pupils in question and thereby a good basis for planning and implementing their teaching. One of the teachers formulates her basis of teaching as follows: In accordance with the individual pupil's background, his typical errors--both oral and written--are worked on so that he develops an understanding of his own capabilities, and a not rare feeling of defeat is changed into a more reasonable self-esteem. Through dia-

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logue, I endeavour to clarify the pupil's learning possibilities. He is motivated to reach the highest possible openness in his realization of the problems and is supported in the independent tackling of these. It is furthermore characteristic that when the courses were mentioned in the interviews, it was mainly the instruction as such which was discussed and not, for instance, the teacher as a person. Here it is also felt that the interviews were carried out with adult people. When the teacher was mentioned, if was usually in a positive way such as: ' T h e teacher is nice.' CThe teacher is easy to talk to.' ~The teacher proceeds in the right manner.' 'He is good at teaching.'

The instruction As mentioned above, it was usually just the instruction itself that was mentioned. A feature mentioned as positive was the small size of the classes. A minimum of two and a maximum of six pupils in each class. With such a size, there is a real possibility of practising individual teaching, which is very important for this group of pupils. Another positive feature is the various forms of teaching materials worked with. ('The activities are varied, there are many different kinds of materials.') The materials, however, are sometimes a problem when teaching adults, who, as regards abilities, are not at what is normally termed the adult level. When, nevertheless, it is possible to find material that takes special account of this, it is usually thanks to the teachers, who, on the basis of the material already available (which is aimed at much younger pupils), adapt it to the group of pupils in question. In this work, the teacher must practise a balancing act between material which, on the one hand, may seem so demanding that it may discourage the pupil from the start and, on the other hand, material which may seem too childish for him. Another problem which was touched upon briefly above is the pupil's pronounced desire

for spelling training. This emphasis on the importance of spelling does of course raise other pedagogical questions for the teacher. 'We already learnt about verbs and nouns in the second form of primary school', said one soldier, who furthermore throught that learnhag this might lead to an instruction which would be too childish for him. And here it would be a question of a balancing act between two extremes. To avoid grammar totally would hardly be suitable. A certain theoretical basis must necessarily be present, but probably only to an extent absolutely necessary for teaching the pupils the rules of spelling they ask for. A final item about the instruction should be mentioned--tempo. A statement quoted above says, ' T h e teacher proceeds in the fight manner', and that this also refers to the tempo of the instruction was the impression one received from many of the statements. Under all circumstances, emphasis was laid on how positive it was if the tempo was slow. This clearly appeared from a group interview where the pupils stressed how valuable it was that they were allowed to decide on the tempo. It is a pronounced individual form of instruction, for which there may very well be a goal to reach, but where this goal may vary from pupil to pupil in the same class. ' T h e instruction proceeds at a slow pace, there is no pressure', says one soldier. It may not be wrong to believe that the consideration for the individual pupil of this form of instruction, and thereby the progress which it aims at, is the very thing which gives the instruction the tranquility for which this group of pupils seems to have such a great need.

Results and benefits It is difficult to measure the results of the instruction. This applies to any kind of instruction, not just the one we are dealing with here. In the experiments that have been made so far in this direction, there seems to have been attempts in some cases to measure the short-

Special literacy activities in the Danish armed forces

term result, that it, at the end of the instruction, while other attempts have tried to measure the more long-term results. Both forms of measurement give rise to problems, however. We could therefore raise the question of whether it would not be more appropriate to replace the term 'result' with 'benefit'. As mentioned above, the instruction is extremely individualized. The pupils come from very different backgrounds. Some cannot write at all. Others merely have troubles with the correct spelling of words they are in other ways capable of using in a relevant way. This in return influences the goals which the different pupils aim for in the instruction. One can ask whether it would not be more appropriate to say that it must be the individual himself and not any instance or test which decides whether the result of the received instruction has been satisfactory. A soldier who has now been discharged explains that the instruction he received as a soldier had helped him in getting a job after he left the army. He thus indicates that he has received instruction which has been of direct benefit to him. Another one said : 'You can always develop and improve' and hereby expressed a somewhat broader and less specific goal for the instruction. Yet another one said: 'It fulfils expectations, but there is too little time for it. But I do believe that it helps.' We should probably not totally disregard the emotional side of the matter. At a FCLmeeting with representatives of specialists in the problems in question, someone brought up the idea that personal knowledge of one's handicap might be a greater obstacle to learning to spell than the handicap itself. On the same occasion, opinions were voiced to the effect that nervous pupils drew a greater benefit from the instruction than those who were not nervous. This corresponds very well with the following statements made by the soldiers: 'It might be my knowledge of the handicap that does it. You start to think and then it goes wrong when you try to write something', and 'I am more open now than before the instruction started and can speak more freely about my

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handicap.' Even though some people may use this as an example of 'One swallow does not make a summer', the statements do howevermin their different ways--express something valuable in the instruction. Furthermore, it is generally felt by all the interviewed soldiers that they do not want cuts to be made in this area, no matter what financial of official reasons are given for this (for example, 'It would not be good, ff cuts were made in this area'): Measurement of results--and how this could be done in the best possible way--is quite an interesting problem. But no matter what the answer is, we would be justified in noting that the instruction in question seems to have functioned as an initiator of an expedient process, and this has taken place at the right moment.

Instruction outside the armed forces The armed forces are of course not the only institution in which people with a low standard of eitidency in their mother tongue can receive instruction in this area. From the very beginning and throughout the whole period at school, special educational assistance is offered to pupils with these problems. As already mentioned, many of the soldiers interviewed had taken part in such instruction. Also in connection with further theoretical as well as practical vocational courses of education, pupils are often offered a similar instruction. T o this should be added that in Denmark we have leisure-time and evening classes where even mature people have the possibility to improve their defective abilities in Danish. This instruction is offered free of charge, teachers' salaries etc. being paid by the public authorities. Great efforts are being made to spread the knowledge of this instruction, Each autumn, evening schools and adult education associations distribute their programmes for the winter season to all households in the country. These programmes contain information about

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the possibilities available in literacy education. Written messages to people, whose problems are specifically in reading and writing, are of course a weak spot, which must in itself limit the effect of such appeals. In spite of this, many people are in this way given a step up of great importance at the practical as well as the personal level, the latter no doubt being not the least important. No matter whether the instruction in reading and writing takes place in the armed forces or in civilian life, it must be--wherever it is a question of teaching adults--in the form of an invitation. It must never take the form of singling out, as this takes the initiative away from the pupil, makes him passive and discourages motivation which should be the principal factor. Only a pupil who comes of his own free will can be expected to receive a satisfactory benefit from the instruction. And o n l y the pupil himself is competent to decide whether the instruction that he receives, will be of benefit to him in the long run. []