Self-directed learning skills in air-traffic control training; An eye-tracking approach

Future changes in aviation technologies require Air-traffic Control (ATC) professionals to be able to adapt to these coming changes in their profession. To be able to adapt to new situations professionals must be able to define learning needs, set learning goals and identify human and material resources (e.g. task selection) to fulfil these needs. These skills are called self-directed learning (SDL) skills Knowles (1975). As a consequence, in ATC training, SDL skills should be developed in an adaptive training system (Van Meeuwen, Brand-Gruwel, Van Merriënboer, & De Bock, 2009). However, in order to self-direct learning, insight in to past performance is necessary. It requires a self-assessment from a present situation. Self-assessment can be seen as one of the self-regulated learning (SRL) skills (Zimmerman, 1990). This leaves the following research question to answer: Can we measure the learners SRL skills without disturbing task performance and is there a relation between learners’ SRL-skills during task performance and the quality of their SDL-skills?