An evaluation of the readability of the training manuals for radiographic testing and ultrasonic testing courses at PNRI

• Main Author: Lagarde, Jocelyn S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2002
• Subjects: Readability (Literary style); Training manuals; Technical education > Curricula
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/3054
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study evaluates the training program on Radiographic Testing and Ultrasonic Testing offered at the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI). The instrument used to determine the readability grade level of the training manuals was the JB Formula which was designed for materials read by Filipinos. It can be used to evaluate the readability grade levels of scientific technical documents for levels beyond college. To identify which group of students perceived the two manuals as quite clear, the Feedback-based Readability Formula was used. This readability formula can be used to evaluate texts with paragraphs, equations, tables, figures and graphs. It classified a printed material into quite clear, clear, quite unclear and unclear through the student's actual interaction with its contents. A systematic random sampling was applied to obtain the sample passages for the JB Readability Formula and the Feedback-based Readability Formula. Twenty-nine pages from the Radiographic Testing training manual and twenty-five pages from the Ultrasonic Testing training manual were sampled for the JB Readability Formula while two pages from the Ultrasonic Testing manual and three pages from Radiographic Testing manual were sampled for the Feedback-based Readability Formula. Two hundred seventy-four students were selected using systematic random sampling from Philippine Normal University, Saint Francis De Assisi College System and Technological University of the Philippines to participate as respondents in evaluating the manuals using the Feedback-based Readability Formula. The results of the study revealed that the Ultrasonic Testing and Radiographic Testing training manuals have Readability Grade Levels suited for first and second year college students. However, the Feedback-based Readability Formula showed that the sampled pages were perceived as quite unclear or unclear by the students who have completed the second year level of their courses, but may not have been provided sufficient background knowledge on scientific concepts and principles involved on radiographic and ultrasonic testing. Most of the sampled pages for the Feedback-based Readability Formula were perceived as either quite clear or clear by the students who have completed the academic requirements of the Technician's course on Nondestructive Testing (NDT) offered at the Technological University of the Philippines.