CFI thesis survey

[harrier]

I am a Certified Flight Instructor and a Graduate student at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. I am performing a study on Certified Flight Instructor training as a part of my thesis. You all helped me with some of these questions earlier, now I need your responses on the survey. I am looking for CFIs, those currently working on their CFI rating, brand new private pilots (last 12 months), and designated examiners.



The study is located at http://cfistudy.com or http://www.cfistudy.com
The survey will only take 10-15 minutes and is part of a graduate research project study. No personal information is required, and all information is confidential.

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[LewisU_Pilot]

Some interesting questions !

 

[Goose Egg]

I am a Certified Flight Instructor and a Graduate student...

Say no more. You have my pity already.

-Goose

(I just took the survey, in case you were wondering)

 

[flyer172r]

Definitely a good survey with some interesting question. You're definitely going after some of the big issues in flight instructing. Good luck with your research

 

[harrier]

Thanks

The survey is still open and I have got a lot of good results from here! Thanks for the well wishes too. I'll post the results when it's done! If you can pass this on to any DE's you know, I'm having a tough time reaching them, they are a tough demo to get in touch with.

 

[harrier]

Wow, so far some of the replies.. it's hard to not take this stuff personal! One person left a comment that simply said "Ball Sweat". There is some constructive criticism that I respect, and even agree with quite often, but then there are some flat out attacks! Hey, I'm a grad student working alone with zero dollars in funding! I've never done this, it wasn't easy. I don't think any of the truely abusive comments came from anyone here, sure makes me sad though. One person said they'd seen better marketing surveys in their spam. Spammers have TONS of cash and people behind their work. I guess I should be proud I'm even being compared to that! hehehe One said that the study is invalid because it only tests opinions. I've never taken a study that tests facts. That would be interesting. "Glass is usually made from sand" agree or disagree? A few of the complaints actually address situations that I mention in the instructions. Had they read them.... Oh well. I am sure it's all part of it, but I had to cry somewhere. *sob* Never thought the hardest part of this would be building an outer shell to deflect personal attacks.

 

[Goose Egg]

Hey, fwiw, I thought it was a pretty good survey. It addressed some things that hadn't occured to me in 500 hours of dual given.

-Goose

 

[harrier]

That is worth a lot. <teary eyed> Thank you!

 

[Andrew_VT]

"A separate certificate should be developed for pilots seeking to build time and not teach."

What does this mean exsactly, I left it neutral because I cant imagine how a seperate certificate like this would work, let alone how well it would work.

I would love to paste more of your questions here and discuss them but i dont want to taint your results. My FSDO ride was a nightmare, never failed, but came about as close as possible.

 

[MauleSkinner]

"A separate certificate should be developed for pilots seeking to build time and not teach."

What does this mean exsactly, I left it neutral because I cant imagine how a seperate certificate like this would work, let alone how well it would work.

I would love to paste more of your questions here and discuss them but i dont want to taint your results. My FSDO ride was a nightmare, never failed, but came about as close as possible.

I had that problem as well...although in general I've found that surveys are written such that they could support any number of conflicting theses with the same answer set

Fly safe!

David

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Just took it.

 

[harrier]

Yeah, it can be hard to write questions that don't lead the survey taker too much but are still clear enough to get the question you want. And I had to use a tiny amount of practice testers to leave enough for the final test since finding participants is so difficult. There are a few questions that have had several comments and will probably simply be removed and/or mentioned but not used to support/disprove the hypothesis. I'm not concerned with proving my hypothesis correct, I'm just excited to see what everyone thinks. If my hypothesis is wrong, cool! Either way,it's insight into the community! The final comments have been really interesting as well. Once the survey closes, I'll come back here about the questions. Who knows, maybe some professionals will like the study and try it again with professional writers and actual funding! haha

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Yeah, it can be hard to write questions that don't lead the survey taker too much but are still clear enough to get the question you want. And I had to use a tiny amount of practice testers to leave enough for the final test since finding participants is so difficult. There are a few questions that have had several comments and will probably simply be removed and/or mentioned but not used to support/disprove the hypothesis. I'm not concerned with proving my hypothesis correct, I'm just excited to see what everyone thinks. If my hypothesis is wrong, cool! Either way,it's insight into the community! The final comments have been really interesting as well. Once the survey closes, I'll come back here about the questions. Who knows, maybe some professionals will like the study and try it again with professional writers and actual funding! haha

I did something similar (developing a welfare questionaire) in my sociological statistics course. It was a hoot to formulate questions absent of bias and steering.

Hope more folks participate in your survey.

Have you tried some of the other pilot forums around the web?

 

[harrier]

Hoot is one word for it I posted it in a few places, but the interesting thing is the majority of the test takers seem to come from NAFI Mentor and here. If you think of any good forums, feel free to let me know. I did a few yahoo groups that I'm a member of, a few google/news groups, myspace (which is where three of the most negative comments came from, coincidence? hehe), and AOPA's message board. I may have to send out mailers to flight schools, but the cost vs. results isn't great for that kind of thing.

 

[Andrew_VT]

Try JetCareers.com they have an awesome pilot community over there

 

[harrier]

WELL the final results are in! I posted the paper at http://cfistudy.com It turned out very interested. The comments are the most interesting (located in Appendix D if I remember correctly of the paper). NOW I take ze nap.