Interaction of system approach model and lesson duration, teachers' qualification on students' competence in technical skills

Abstract

The changes, complexity and demands at workplaces requires students to develop competence in technical skills to fit into the current industrial world. This paper examines the effect of the use of system approach model together with lesson duration and teachers’ qualification on ST3 students’ competence in technical skills. Eighty-nine (89) students participated in the study, out of which 42 assigned to experimental group instructed by the system approach model and 47 assigned to the control group instructed by the traditional approach drawn through a purposive sampling procedure. A well-structured 45-item multiple-choice question titled Competency in Metalwork Trades (CMTs) was used for data collection. Mean, Standard Deviation and Independents sample t-test, ANCOVA statistics using SPSS were employed to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated that a significant difference exists between the mean of students’ achievement in the three aspects of metalwork trades measured to the advantage of the experimental group. The interaction effect between treatment and lesson duration showed that students taught 90mins (double periods) outperformed their counterpart taught in 45mins. Interaction effect between treatment and teachers’ qualification showed a systematically equal competence. These results lay evidence that the system approach model (SAM) is efficient in producing competent technical skills graduates for survival in the society making it suitable for teaching in developing nations such as Nigeria.