Modellierung und Entwicklung des fachsystematischen und handlungsbezogenen Fachwissens von Kfz-Mechatronikern

Abstract

The present paper focuses on car mechatronics’ professional competence development and its impact on changes in the competence structure. The study draws on longitudinal data covering the second year of vocational training and on pseudo-longitudinal data collected at the end of vocational training. Regarding action-related professional knowledge of standard service, i. e. generation and evaluation of action plans, findings indicate a decrease in explanatory capacity of explicit professional knowledge during the course of vocational training. This downward trend can be interpreted as an increase in relevance of implicit knowledge for routine tasks. As regards the apprentices’ professional problem-solving skills, the great importance of explicit professional knowledge remains on the same level. In other words, no routines appear to be established here in the course of vocational training. Concerning the structural differentiation of professional knowledge findings of earlier studies can be replicated, even though a different test design was chosen. It is assumed that the structural differentiation is the result of curricular focuses that are set at vocational school. Regarding competence development in areas largely related to workplace activities (standard service), significant albeit considerably lower learning gains and a reduction of achievement variance are observed.