The Exploration of Practice Schema on Clothing Major by Gradual, Divided
and Multivariant Way——With Clothing Design and Engineer Major for Example
Xiao-fen Ji1, Li-ling Cai 2, Ying Zhang 2
12
Fashion College, Zhejiang Sci-tech University, 310018, Hangzhou
(xiaofen11@hotmail.com)
Abstract - Practice course is an important way to foster
college students’ manipulating ability and creative ability,
students who take part in enterprise practice can help
themselves to adapt to future work. This paper pays
attention on practice course of clothing major, through the
two-way survey on university and enterprise, and then find
out the problem on existing practice schema, finally put
forward new schema. We hope the application of this new
schema improves practice course’s effect and quality,
embodies the new schema’s value.
Keywords - divided way, gradual way, practice ability,
practice schema
Our group designed and implemented two stages of
questionnaire survey and interviews. The first stage was
mainly through a questionnaire survey and focused on the
senior students and previous graduates of clothing major.
We distributed 80 questionnaires in total and received 60
valid ones with 75% efficiency. The second stage was
mainly through interviews and focused on the garment
enterprises. A total of 16 department heads and managers
involved in the face-to-face interviews. A two-way
perspective to analysis the settings of the practice courses
can lead to more accurate positioning of existing
problems, and thus build a more realistic practice schema.
B. Research results
I. Introduction
Off-campus internship is an essential part of practice
teaching in higher engineering education, which, is an
important way to combine theory with practice. It
contributes to the improvement of practice and innovative
ability of technology and engineering management major
undergraduates. During the practice, undergraduates can
deepen the understanding of theoretical knowledge, thus
establish a solid foundation for future courses study and
meet the need of technology and engineering management
positions as quickly as possible. Therefore the innovation
of clothing practice courses not only has great academic
value in practical teaching theory research but also has
realistic importance in enhancing the practice ability and
promoting employment of undergraduates[1] [2]. Through
research we found some problems that practice courses
faced with and discussed about the solutions, also
introduced a new schema to improve the effect of practice
courses.
II. Problem Research and Analysis on Existing Practice
Schema of Clothing Major
A. Research design
____________________
This article is one of the research results of national
teaching achievement award- Clothing production theory
and practice series courses based on the "shadow
company". Fund project: Zhejiang Province higher
education teaching reform project of the new century
(No.YD08033) Author introduction: Xiao-fen JI (1971- ),
female, doctor of management, professor, vice president
of Zhejiang Sci-tech University, mainly engaged in the
clothing management of teaching and research.
The questionnaire survey through the students'
perspective showed that most undergraduates have high
expectations for internships. Although the high selfexpectations had a positive impact on practice
effectiveness [3], the question is most of them were lack of
good psychological preparation and pre-planning. They
were often frustrated in the face of the actual working
conditions, thereby affecting their initiative. 88 percent of
undergraduates and graduates were more interested in the
practice courses but less satisfied with the practice effects.
In the beginning of the internships they were curious and
desired to grasp the rich experience and knowledge
beyond the textbooks. However, once they entered the
enterprise they found that actual production activities
were not that easy and the daily production rhythm was
quite tight, thus they gradually disgusted with the
production and operation-related issues. Also, 75 percent
of graduates thought the internships were lack of targeted
practice. Sophomore stage of the internships is mainly
factory tour and observation-based which lack of handson aspect and without the technical content. If theoretical
knowledge cannot be used to practice, it does not make
sense [4] [5]. Junior stage of practice due to a lack of early
guidance and self-planning, undergraduates can easily
generate a sense of blindness. 82 percent of the graduates
reflected their internships were lack of autonomy and with
unclear goals. Few of them would made detailed personal
plans for the practice courses.
Through the interviews with the managers our
research group found the more difficult problem was the
matching of practice and the reality of production. In
addition, there were a lot of confusions in interns
receiving and positions arrangement [6]. For example, 10
of 16 managers concerned if the internships would disrupt
the normal order of production and affect the production
efficiency, so they often refused to accept interns in an
excuse of produce busy or no time reception. This
happened especially to the sophomore interns. Managers
believed that the young interns would not be suitable for
the specific work, and less job autonomy and objectives [7]
[8]
. In addition, the lack of prior well-organized and
detailed planning might bring difficulties for management
and control.
In short, the existing practice schema of clothing
major cannot fully match the undergraduates’ learning
ability, cognitive rules and practice expectations. Each
stage of the internships does not fully consider the
interface between the students' knowledge structure.
Second, the specific contents and form are failed to
constitute a "seamless connection" with the business
operations. In addition, deficiencies in targeted and
autonomy of the courses result in unfully mobilized
enthusiasm and initiative of the undergraduates,
eventually lead to a far cry from the actual effect to the
expectations.
III. The Exploration of Practice Schema on Clothing
Major
A. Emphasize on a gradual process in learning
practical knowledge
Internships of universities are quite different from
that of college (2 or 3 years). The former focuses on the
cultivation of students' operation ability and practical
ability [9], while the latter pay more attention to the
cultivation of students' comprehensive and innovative
ability. Therefore clothing major internships should focus
on students' comprehensive ability. First, taking the
master of theoretical knowledge as the basis of practice,
and then deepen the understanding of professional
knowledge though practice, thus use the theoretical
knowledge and practical experience in innovative
applications of expertise. The settings of new practice
courses system must emphasize on a gradual way of
practical knowledge learning. It would be better to begin
with basic theoretical knowledge and make reasonable
arrangements for the process, therefore help
undergraduates gradually master the theoretical
knowledge and practical knowledge, so that they can
promote each other.
B. Emphasize on divided projects and assessment
which meet a diversified requirements of students
Humanistic learning theory suggests that learners
themselves have the ability to learn, the learning process
make sense for learners when learning content matches
with their purpose [10]. Internships are an important way
for undergraduates to acquire knowledge. Though practice
students can not only access to job-related skills [11], but
also increase professional self-efficacy, and then
facilitates the formation of vocational self-concept [12].
However, the practice will not achieve the expected effect
once the practice mode is not appropriate and the students'
interests or purpose go against the practice content. In the
recent survey we found that only 10 percent of the
undergraduates can link current practice with the industry
status and future employment, while most of them treat
practice as a required courses or practical classes for
college, thus the lack of initiative contributes to an
unsatisfactory result. Therefore the settings of practice
courses must pay attention to students’ interest and career
choice. The new system must emphasize on the
diversified interest requirements of undergraduates and
develop a divided internships program and assessment
which meet the needs of different specialty.
C. Practice schema on clothing major by gradual,
divided and multivariant way
According to the research, interviews, and analysis of
the key points of setting practice courses, we proposed a
practice schema by gradual, divided and multivariant way.
In accordance with the principles of gradual and orderly
progress, the new schema is supposed to begin with
perceptions to stimulate students' interest and curiosity,
encourage them to move on to the problem exploration,
and then improve and expand professional skills, and
finally to the stage of the cultivation of professional skills.
The gradual way emphasize on the comprehension and
innovation of theoretical knowledge as well as reasonable
arrangements of training period. It forms a step by step
learning process which follows a principle from emotional
to rational and primary to advance. The divided way
refers to the personalization and pertinence of practice
schema, namely training students in accordance with
individual differences and carry out the project on reality.
The multivariant way refers to the differentiation of
assessment methods which suppose to be fair and
Practice
content
Step by step
Gradual way
Practice
schema
Practice
form
Divided way;
Pertinence
Practice
assessment
Multivariant way;
Differentiation
objective. See Figure 1.
Fig. 1. Structure and characteristic of practice schema
by gradual, divided and multivariant way.
IV. The Project of Practice Schema on Clothing Major
A. Practice content design
The research group designs three stages of practice
content. The purpose of off-campus internships in second
year of college is to help the undergraduates recognize
and understand the industry and the employees’
psychology, ethics and professionalism. Also have a
preliminary understanding of the actual situation of
production, operation and management of modern
enterprises and enhance the theories to acquire more
perceptual knowledge.
Internships in third year of college is supposed to
apply knowledge and skills to the practical and flexibly
solve and deal with practical problems encountered in the
process of operational management, such as production
technology, product quality and marketing planning. Also
they must enhance the problem-solving ability.
In the fourth grade undergraduates should carry out
the graduation project while facing the problem of
employment. In this period internships can integrate with
graduation project. Undergraduates can enhance career
self-efficacy through internships and smoothly get to
work [13] [14].
B. Practice form design
We refine the internships into three stages following
the cognition rule and knowledge structure of
undergraduates.
First, we propose utilize of inquiry-based practice
which is practical-oriented and inspire undergraduates to
take the initiative to find the practical problems of
enterprise’s operation process. Undergraduates would
acquire perceptual knowledge of realistic production
management and operation conditions through the
sophomore stages of practice. At the same time, with their
inspection they can find some existing problems in the
enterprises, and then think about possible solutions.
In order to strengthen the above capacity, we suggest
the form of research projects in the junior stage.
Undergraduates will carry out relevant projects and
independent proposition based on the topic provide by the
teachers in the practice process according to their
direction. They must submit the report at the end of the
internships. This stage can also be referred to the
graduation practice and have greater autonomy.
C. Practice assessment design
Existing assessment method is mainly based on the
practice diary and production practice report, partly based
on the reviews and discipline of the production practice.
This assessment method is so results-oriented that it goes
against students' enthusiasm and cannot guarantee the
practice effects. In addition, the teacher’s assessment
criteria may be quite different from the enterprise; it is
difficult to balance two of them within the same goal. The
practice system can consider both colleges and enterprises
[15]
.
Therefore we introduce report and communication
section to the assessment criteria. The specific approach is:
both undergraduates and the corporate staff participate in
the communication meeting in the guidance of the teacher
at the end of the internships. First, undergraduates report
their experience; then, on-site students and teachers are
free to ask them questions; finally, corporate staff and
teachers give a score considering the performance of the
undergraduates, including their performance in the
internships. The final score should be based on the
undergraduate’s understanding of the position, the actual
practice performance and the ability to identify and solve
problems.
TABLE I
Details of practice schema by gradual, divided and multivariant way
Stage
Skills
Capacity
Form
Assessment
Second
Basic
Perspective
Question-
ability
oriented
Practice
project-
Communica
tion
meetings;
Discipline;
Company
reviews;
Practice
report
Third
Specialty
ability
oriented
Forth
Professio
Innovative
independent
nal
ability
proposition
V. Key Points of the Application of New Schema
A. Arousing practice enthusiasm and initiative
It is not easy to apply and promote the practice
schema by gradual, divided and multivariant way. The
primary problem which is quite critical in the second year
of college is how to stimulate the practice enthusiasm and
initiative of the undergraduates. To this end, excellent
graduates should be invited to give lectures early of the
practice.
Details
of
communication
including:
organizational form of internships, difficulties in the
practice, issues should be taken care and suggestions on
the choice of internships positions. Also, clothing
business managers can be invited to give some
introductions about the positions, including: working
environment, work processes, basic quality and specific
requirements of different positions, salary comparison,
and future development of different positions. According
to our experience in the practice training courses, these
measures have good guidance and inspiration for students
and help students to set the right goal in practice, thus to
arouse the enthusiasm of students to initiatively plan and
actively participate in the internships.
B. Monitoring and making objective evaluation of
student's practice process
Internships are a self-learning process and are mostly
conducted dispersedly. However, the practice courses
often go in to an awkward situation that the learning
process is difficult to control and the effects are difficult
to compare. To solve this problem, we designed a practice
process management approach relying on the practice
network platform for the relevant functions. For example,
students involved in internships are required to register
basic information (daily practice arrangements, basic
information of the teacher, e.g.) to enable teachers to keep
abreast of the progress of internships; In addition, students
need to upload internships diary and practical report
regularly so teachers are able to make a comparison of the
process according to the complementation speed and
quality of the process results. Such a schema not only
contributes to the achievement of the objective and
comprehensive assessment of the practice courses but also
arouse the initiative and enthusiasm of the students to
participate in internships.
VI. Conclusion
Off-campus Internship is an important way to enhance
comprehensive ability, practical ability and innovative
ability. It is an essential practical course in project
management major. We pointed out several problems and
deficiency in existing practice courses of clothing major
though questionnaire survey and interview analysis of
both colleges and enterprises, and then putting forward a
new practice schema by gradual, divided and multivariant
way including the structure, content, form, assessment
method and key points of the application of the new
schema . The new practice courses and the production and
theory courses would complement each other so they can
help students to acquire more comprehensive knowledge
of the industry. Practice schema on clothing major by
gradual and step by step way has received the national
teaching awards in 2009 as an important son achievement,
and, the group will move forward to explore and reform
the practice courses which meet the acquirements of
undergraduates, colleges and the industry.
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