Abstract
The ASCOT research initiative funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had the objective to measure vocational competencies in high-quality jobs. To adequately assess these it is important to offer authentic situations, similar to real-life (working) situations. Whether domain-specific problem-solving competencies are a unidimensional or a multidimensional construct has far reaching implications in vocational education e.g., regarding valid assessment of performance in the final exam at the end of vocational training. This article deals with the structure of problem-solving competencies of electronics technicians for automation technology at the end of their apprenticeship. Realistic problems with the focus on professional activities such as programming (constructive problem-solving) and troubleshooting a programmable logic controller (analytical problem-solving) were employed to measure domain-specific problem-solving competencies. Based on the results structural equation models were calculated and different models are compared for goodness of fit with consideration to content knowledge and fluid intelligence as predictors. Our results document a two-dimensional structure of domain-specific problem-solving consisting of an analytical and a constructive dimension. This two-dimensional structure remains stable even if content knowledge and fluid intelligence are included as predictors for the domain specific problem-solving competencies (Figs. 1, 5, 6). Only knowledge areas, which are relevant to the problem-solving situation, were predictive for the analytical and constructive problem-solving competencies. Fluid intelligence has a direct effect on both domain-specific problem-solving competencies but the influence is considerably lower when compared to relevant content knowledge. Based on these findings the final exam at the end of the apprenticeship needs to enclose an appropriate amount of both subdimensions of domain-specific problem-solving competencies. As a practical implication both dimensions have to be supported in addition to the teaching of content knowledge.
Highlights
The main focus in this article is on electronics technicians in the field of automation technology, who work for companies which develop, manufacture or install automation solutions in the craft trades field or in the trade and industry sector
For solving analytical and constructive problems, only the required dimensions of content knowledge were predictive, which are relevant to the problem-solving situation
We suggest three subdimensions for content knowledge on the basis of findings in the field of mechatronics and task analyses of electronics technicians for automation technology
Summary
To adequately assess these it is important to offer authentic situations, similar to real-life (working) situations. Assessing professional knowledge in an industrial-technical field at the end of an apprenticeship nearly always shows multidimensional models, whereas the structure using this knowledge in different problem situations is unidimensional (an overview in Nickolaus and Seeber 2013) This fact is probably influenced by the assessment of domain-specific problem-solving competencies that focused in previous research only on analytical aspects, like the ability of troubleshooting by prospective car mechatronics technicians or electricians for building technology, because these analytical requirements are very relevant in vocational practice (Becker 2005)
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