Abstract
This paper investigates the nature of learning outcomes of thirty six electronics students who were receiving training under the recent reform processes advocated by the Australian government. The reform processes place great emphasis on macro issues thereby unintentionally relegating the micro issues, such as learning in the classroom, to a lower priority. Such misdirected emphasis may hinder the development of an intelligent workforce. A multi method approach which involved a problem task, interviews and concept maps was used to establish the learning outcomes. The learning outcomes were analysed to identify the nature of students’ knowledge structures and the sophistication in their understanding of the topic “Frequency Division Multiplexing”. Students’ knowledge structures and levels of understanding were compared with those generated by 3 experts. The findings indicated a low level of understanding and a very lean knowledge structure with limited relational links to other elements in the given information. Furthermore, a comparison of students’ knowledge structures and levels of understanding was made between students with more than 2 years work experience and those coming to their course straight from secondary schools. The findings of this analysis did not support the argument that work experience enriches students’ knowledge and understanding, as students with no work experience performed better then the work experience students. Thus, there needs to be more empirical research on the nature of real work experience routines and how it affects learning rather than theorising on ideal work situations.
Résumé
Cet article examine les effets, en termes d’apprentissage, d’une récente réforme de la formation des étudiants en électronique en Australie. La réforme met l’accent sur des facteurs macroscopiques, reléguant involontairement les facteurs plus locaux, comme l’apprentissage en classe, au second plan. Une telle erreur stratégique peut compromettre le succès d’un projet de fomation. Une approche multiméthode, incluant une tâche de résolution de problème, des interviews et l’investigation de cartes conceptuelles, a été employée dans l’évaluation des effets. Cette évaluation de l’apprentissage visait à l’identification des structures de connaissance et du degré de sophistication de la compréhension dans le domaine “Frequency Division Multiplexing”. Les connaissances et le degré de compréhension des étudiants furent comapres à ceux produits par 3 experts. Les résultats indiquent un bas niveau de compréhension et une structure de connaissance très pauvre, peu de liens unissant les différents éléments d’une information. En outre, une comparaison des structures de connaissances disponibles a été effectuée entre des étudiants fraîchement arrivés de l’enseignement secondaire et des étudiants ayant eu au ninimum une expérience de deux années de travail. Les résultats de cette comparaison ne permettent pas de conclure que l’expérience professionnelle enrichit les connaissances et la compréhension, les étudiants sans cette expérience réussissant rnieux que les autres. Il est donc urgent d’entreprendre des recherches empiriques sur les effets réels de l’expérience de travail plutôt que de théoriser sur les effets de situations de travail idéales.
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The work reported in this paper was supported by a Queensland University of Technology meritorious grant to the author.
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Pillay, H.K. An analysis of knowledge representation of students in electronic problem tasks. Eur J Psychol Educ 14, 325–338 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173118
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173118