Exploring the Training Process and Personal Traits of Excellent Competitors
Using Grounded Theory: An Exmple of Electrical Engineering Cluster Students
Chen, Farn Shing *
*Professor and dean, Department of Industrial Education and Technology,
Chou, Hui Wen **
**Doctoral student, Department of Industrial Education and Technology,
National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 500, Taiwan.
Tu, Chia-An
**Master student, Department of Industrial Education and Technology,
National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 500, Taiwan.
Abstract
The study was based on grounded theory and interviewed the winners of
National Industry-Related Skills Competition of High School Students in Electrical
and Electronic Cluster students in Taiwan. By individual depth interviews for twenty
one students (trainee) and twenty one teachers(trainer) were awarded Prize.
Researcher explores the contextual framework of the success experience .The results
of the study can be classified into two parts: the professional skills and the personal
traits .The first part includes logical reasoning, working procedure and operating
adroitness. The second part comprises activeness, concentration, humbleness, stamina,
ambition and stability.
Introduction
For the recent decades, the vocational education has gained a robust progress and
great achievement in Taiwan. The fact that Taiwan’s small and medium enterprises
accounts for over eighty percent of all business organizations causes huge dependence
on various levels of skilled human resources. At the stage of senior high school, the
students taking vocational education has been sixty percent of total number in Taiwan.
In recent ten years, the elites of vocational education not only focus on skill training
of practice, but also reinforce students’ general knowledge and character education.
Vocational education not only emphasizes on professional skills but also emphasizes
personal traits, and the two educational targets are the important factors to train high
quality capable talents of vocational education.
The main purpose of vocational high school is to train high level students.
Especially for the top 6 students awarded the Golden Hand Prize in the National
Industry-Related Skills Competition of High School, they are the best among those
equipped with outstanding skills. The teacher’s experiences, skills and teaching
methods are the subjective factors deciding whether the students could win in the
competition (Chen Bo-Han, 2004). Instructors have to put lots of efforts into the
training process; therefore, training is not an easy job. No matter how hard the
instructors had worked, the instructors only play the role of a trainer. Owing to the
personal various traits, practical and perfection pursuing competitors could possibly
earn better or worse scores from those carelessly competitors who don’t even sense
the competition pressure. With the difference of trainee’s skill and personality, the
final results will reflect these factors involving the skill training and personal traits.
This research is conducted through detailed interview to discuss the core skill
and traits of the Electrical Engineering Cluster Golden Hand Prize winners, aiming at
finding elite students’ same core abilities and unique traits for themselves in order to
acquire the guidelines that the electrical engineering cluster instructors should follow
in their teaching and use to develop the students’ traits.
Literature Review
The designation for vocational high school curriculum from grade 10 to grade 12
in Taiwan divides the required abilities for each different class into “Core Ability” and
“Skill Ability”. “Core Ability” means general ability, including personal life,
employment and acquiring the basic ability that facilitates works; the “Skill Ability”
means the required technique, service and management ability when seeking for jobs,
working and making progress in career. The Skill Ability for electrical engineering
cluster includes: 1.The ability of solving circuit problems. 2. The ability of applying
computers to solve problem. 3. The ability of using basic tools, electrical engineering
and relevant equipments. 4. The ability of up-keeping and repairing electrical
engineering and electronic equipment and relevant equipments. 5. The ability of
looking up professional manual and knowing the wiring diagram or circuit diagram. 6.
Be familiar with the relevant regulations. 7. The ability of maintaining workplace
security and environmental hygiene. 8. Understand the situation of the development
of entire industry. Owing to the emphasis of Core Ability and Skill Ability, vocational
high school education becomes the important tunnel of develop basic skill human
resources for Taiwan.
The skills contain invariance, complexity, continuity and coherence. At the very
first phase of skill learning, the progress is made slowly. The personal traits, such as
self-encouragement is required, then going through the period of practicing over and
over again. The formation of complicated skills has three stages: cognitive stage,
associative stage and autonomous stage. In the cognitive stage, students at first learn
skills from instructors or modeling. Students acquire correct operation by cognitive
learning, and practice again and again at the next step in order to achieve the ideal
level, “Practice makes perfect.” (Kang Zih-Li, 1994). In the associative stage, at this
point the student practices the newly acquired skill with the intent of achieving accurate
and consistent performance to form the response pattern. In the autonomous stage, the
goal of this stage is to perform the skill perfectly every time, that is, reach a maximal
level of proficiency. Students are getting familiar with skills due to practice, then speed
up, and maintain a high level of proficiency. The well performance of skills needs
students themselves self-learning, and makes the learning become stable skill habits.
(Chang Chun-Sing & Lin Ching-Shan, 1990). The learning and training of skills are
inevitably through the medium of action, and the process represents personal traits,
such as attitude, sensitivity and emotion within the performance of action.
The purpose of National Industry-Related Skills Competition of High School is
to encourage students to focus on skill practices and help schools make progress by
exchanging experiences in order to level up student’s skills. Many factors may
influence the efficiency of students’ skill learning, including the mental and physical
ability of trainees, motivations, learning methods, time, environment, instruction and
training, etc. (Jhao Jiih-Yang, Jhong Ruei-Guo, Jhang Jhij-Long,& Jhang
Jhao-Wei,1996). In the competition, competitors not only have to be equipped with
outstanding skills, but also need steady personality in order to face the vigorous
atmosphere of competition. Skills competition assays competitors’ skills and energy.
With the long time fighting, competitors have to calm down their mind, fight against
their fatigue and complete the requirement of standard skill. Therefore, the high
performance is necessary, and the personal inside and outside factors are pivotal in the
race for championship. How to pick the excellent students who have good personal
traits and train them to win the title not only tests the choosing ability of instructors,
but also tests trainees’ personal skills and traits.
Successful students maybe have strict and experienced instructors, who can find
the most suitable training mode, considering students’ characteristics and fitting the
types of vocations of the competition. Training generally begins from simplicity to
complication, individual to multiplicity, and part-time to long-time training. All these
trainings can familiarize students with the procedure and the skill of operation,
strengthen the professional knowledge and increase the ability of improvising, in
order to let students know the advantages and weakness of their skills. Therefore,
instructor’s ability of placing the talented person is obviously very important (Yang
Wan-Ho, 2002).
The attitude is one of learning activities, which represents the mental preparation
consisting of consistency and endurance, pointing out the direction of learning
behavior and influencing the results. Attitudes contain cognition, affection and
behavior. The performance of action has different internal positive or negative
intention due to being affected by inside and outside environment. The attitude of
learning would be influenced by student’s affection for the learning environment. The
self-conviction, target of lives, hopes and sensibility are creating huge impact on
students’ motivation and performance.
During the learning process, despite the instruction methods, another important
factor that influences learning efficiency is student’s motivations. Lots of researches
have confirmed that motivation has positive influences on performance (Lent, Brown
& Larkin, 1984; Newman, 1990; Pintrich, 1987; Pokay & Blumenfled, 1990; Schunk,
1986; Trawick, 1988; Wu Guo-Ye, 2002; Wu, Shu-Jhu, 1998). During the process of
skills training and learning, motivation is the key factor deciding the level of students’
achievement. The skill training should be practiced many times; although it is a
boring and energy-wasting activity, it is impossible for us to expect students to
acquire excellent learning efficiency and win the competition if students don’t have
enough motivations and good attitudes when facing any high competitive contest.
Shi(2004) researched the nationwide competition from 2001 to 2004 had found
that completed training program, providing impeccable equipment, instrument and
facility, active training negotiation meeting, hosting or participating in cross-schools’
competition of relevant kind of vocation, and encouraging students to take part in
national skills contests are the key factors to win the competition. After long time
training, the level of skill is almost equal. Both of students themselves and training
instructors become the important factors to win the championship.
Methodology
The interviewees
The industry-related electrical engineering cluster skills competition held
annually in Taiwan. The date is set to be held about within the ten days of each
December and hosted by the Ministry of Education. The competition contains subject
evaluation and skill testing. The test covers vocational subjects of 5 semesters from
grade 10 to grade 12, 6 students champion winners will be chosen for each vocation.
The interviewees of this research consist of the detailed conversation with the
randomly-picked 3 Golden Hand Prize winners and 3 instructors chosen from 7
vocations of electrical engineering field. Of these 7 vocations of electrical engineering
field, there are 23 students of refrigeration, 70 of computer repairing, 43 of computer
software designing, 49 of industrial electronics, 48 of visual and audio electronics, 63
of industrial wiring and 54 of interior wiring. Figure 1 represents the range of Golden
Hand Prize winning instructors and students.
Figure 1: Orders of the interviewed students/teachers and the vocations
Vocation
Orders
population
Refrigeration
2
3
4
23
Computer Software Designing
2
4
6
43
Computer Repairing
1
2
5
70
Industrial Electronics
1
2
5
49
Visual & Audio Electronics
1
2
6
48
Industrial Wiring
1
4
6
63
Interior Wiring
2
4
6
54
Data Analysis
The interview results are transformed into transcript, and then used to comprehend
and analyze the traits that Golden Hand Award winners have towards their success of
skill training and learning according to the tiered forms complied by the grounded
theory. Figure 2 represents the analysis for the traits that Golden Hand Award winners
have when succeeding in skill training and learning.
Figure2. Professional skill and Personal traits
Professional Skills
1st Tier
2nd Tier
3rd Tier
Logical
Programming/
inference
formula Design
The logic is clear enough to be able to imagine
the next movement
The independent designing ability creating
various solutions to problems
Circuit Design
Identify virtual and practical circuit
Circuit blocks cutting and circuit function
establishment
Organizing each circuit function
Circuit
Software compiling test
Experiment
Confirm the wiring connection of hardware
Accessories test
Be ware of soldering
Debugging
Be ware of program orders and times of loops
Interference of resistance or noise
Test of circuit point tier by tier
Soldering and articles/pieces test
Promotion of Skills
Working
Working
procedure
Arrangement
Notice the required special features and make
cutting according to the required functions
respectively
The changes from input or output of circuit and
motions created
Plan the route in the brain first, and then map it
out
Procedures of the
construction
Figure out the outline and then evaluate the
details
Figure out the sequence of the function and the
methods of organization
Start from the macrostructure and the facile part
Plan the structure
Separate the circuit constituted by the electric
machinery
Design the circuit diagram for the requirement
of function
Finish the basic structure
Arrange the needed time for every part before
the implementation
Operate
Nimble thinking
Think in various ways for the uncommon
formula
Eye-Hand
Do things with high speed and great sensitivity
without sacrificing the quality of the appearance
adroitness
coordination
Personal Traits
Activeness
Active learning
attitude
Find answers merely with directions provided
by teachers rather than the explanation of
details
Ask teachers for questions to practice and
practice the relevant questions
Have eagerness to learn more about
professional ability and take actively the
relevant exams for certificates
Eagerness to
Have fun in learning and hope to figure out the
know answers
questions
Like to explore the circuit diagram and try
every possible ways until problems are solved
Contemplate over reasons despite the provided
answers
Self-requirement
Spend time on self-practice and work on
questions as many as possible
Require himself or herself to finish the work on
time
Have good habits in construction and posit tools
in place
Self-confidence
Have self-confidence in his or her ability and
outperform his or her classmates
Believe that he or she can get prizes
concentration
Keep up with the
working
Practice from the basis. Practice repeatedly
without leaping the procedures heedlessly
procedures
Carefulness
Be circumspect about details and patient to
check the possible faults of every part
Resistance to
attraction
Humbleness
Willingness to
cooperation
Have regular and normal life style, as well as
the ability to resist the attraction of any
substance in life
Know thoughts and ideals of teachers and tend
to take advice from teachers
Solve the problems in his or her own ways and
comprehend and fit with standard requirements
Sincerity
Make efforts to make up for his or her inability
Have positive working attitude and willingness
to cooperate with the training of teachers
Stamina
ask questions
Have courage to ask questions and know clearly
the standard required by refugees and questions
Perseverance
Have perseverance in doing anything and
disincline to give up easily in the face of
problems
Persistency
Have more persistency of the arduous practice
and more energy than other classmates
Solve problems
Think of ways on his or her own as none can
provide answer
Self-reflection
Think often about better ways of problem
solution
Willingness to
Have willingness to spend time in the face of
practice
spend time
Ambition
Eagerness to
succeed
Incline to work
Grasp any opportunity of practice and have
eagerness to get prizes
Like to separate, reconstruct, and rearrange
articles
Accept
Have courage to accept the tasks with higher
challenges
difficulty
No
Finish before scheduled time without
procrastinating tasks
procrastination
High stability
Self-regulation
Have ability to keep calm and adjust pressure
on his/her own
resistance to
Disincline to give up easily in the face of
difficulty
on the spot
pressure
Composure
Think and try to solve simple parts as dealing
with tough questions according to the
construction procedures with self-composure
Conclusion and Discussion
The electrical engineering cluster is inclusive of several different vocations. The
emphasis of every vocation consists in the pivotal ability of logic analysis, especially
the sequence and reasonability of logical reasoning. The ability of logical reasoning
manifests itself in the logics pertaining to the program/formula design, circuit design,
circuit experiment and the debugging. People who have this ability can clearly order
the input and the eventual formula sequence, separate and organize circuit, and
construct the function of the circuit. Besides, they are able to detect and inspect faults
logically. From the perspective of technical performances, trainers consider that
choosing trainees who have the ability of logical reasoning is conducive to the
training. It is impossible for one to acquire the ability of logical reasoning in a very
short time; hence, as far as the jobs of electrical engineering cluster are concerned, the
ability of logical reasoning to a certain degree is indispensable. However, the logical
ability of vary vocations are different, for example, the vocations of circuit operation
requires lower ability of logical reasoning in general, while the vocations prone to
software design or the complex circuit function need higher ability of logical
reasoning. Nonetheless, it is difficult to quantify the ways or discrepancies between
high or low ability of logic ability.
The training of working procedure is the emphasis of the cultivation of technical
attainment. The arrangement of the construction is from the macrostructure to the
microstructure. The adept trainees are able to form the geographic blueprint of the
construction in mind and then plan the basic working blueprint. According to the
sequence of the construction, after the completion of the plan for the circuit
macrostructure, the separation and combination of the detailed function would be
conducted, in which the small unit of the circuit is undertaken first. In addition, in
point of the structure planning of the construction, they can separate the big circuit
into several small parts of circuits and keep their works closely up with the needed
time as planned. After the completion of the construction, they debug and integrate
the work in accordance with the structure of the circuit. One with nimble reaction,
good eye-hand coordination and unique creativity is the most needed by the operation
tasks, because he or she can construct the circuit with the ideas consonant with the
logic, completing the required function.
In terms of personal traits, students who are awarded Golden Hand Prize of
electrical engineering cluster tend to attempt to reconstruct things, have strong
eagerness to know answers, set standards for themselves and resist attraction; hence,
their learning attitudes are active. Besides, they can cooperate with the training of
teachers, have their own thinking ways, ask people humbly, have courage to ask
questions that confuse them, work according to the schedule, usually have
self-composure and perseverance, solve problems patiently, be willing to take
challenges and spend time for challenges, finish works as they expect under time
pressure and ask themselves to progress in terms of technical skills. Moreover, they
are able to adjust their pressure by themselves and react with aplomb, completing the
competition. Also, they would figure out how to overcome the difficulty and assure
themselves in the face of frustrations without giving it up easily.
The skill competition tests not only trainees directly but also trainers indirectly.
It is not the crucial factor if the trainers have the background as a trainee in the
industrial-related skills competition once won’t affect the trainee will win or not.
However, the trainers who were trainees once can tranquilize trainees more quickly in
the process of the training. Similar to the result of the previous study, to what degree
the experience of the trainers in guiding trainees is could be the crucial factor of the
discrepancies that exist in the quality of the training of trainees’ technical skills. The
experienced trainers can control the procedures of the training for trainees and time
arrangement more systematically and step by step than the inexperienced ones can
(Shi, Jia-Fei, 2004). With regard to the emotional stability, experienced trainers can
understand the emotional tempo of trainees so as to decide when to put higher or
lower training pressure on trainees. The experienced trainers also can integrate the
competition experiences in different years in particular to form much more trenchant
tacit knowledge to give the simulation training according to the deficiency in trainees’
ability.
Limitation and Application
A few trainees have had participated in the national industry-related skills
primary competition in June or the semi-final competition in September before they
take part in the industrial-related skills competition. It is unknown if the experience in
the competition is one of the factors that influence the results. We also didn’t take into
consideration the discrepancies of the ability of logical reasoning existing in various
vocations if it is an influence on the results of the competition. Neither do we think
about the discrepancies among students’ attainments affect the result of the
competition are contained in this research.
The influence of the entrance examination system in Taiwan has naturally
spawned the discrepancies between top schools and not top schools. Fortunately,
about half of trainees who awarded the Golden Hand Awards come from not top
schools, which is the encouraging result that suggests the technical training can be
developed for students who performed poorly in the traditional writing examination.
Given that the discrepancies of the technical skills among trainees do vary little,
it is riveting to delve into the degree of the impact whether personal traits of the
trainee have a positive or negative influence on the competition. In addition, how
personal traits and the technical skills affect each other is vague. Experienced as the
trainers are, they are unable to predict the result of the competition. It is feasible to
make further research on how the intrinsic tacit belief or self-motivation mechanism
of trainees affects the course and the result of the competition.
Reference
Anderson, J. R.(1982). Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psycological. Review, 89,
369-406.
Bandura, A. (1991). Self regulation of motivation through anticipatory and
self-reactive mechanisms. In R.Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium
on-Motivation: Vol.38. Perspective on motivation.-Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press.
Chang, Chun-Xing & Lin, Ching-Shan (1990). Educational Psychology. Taipei:
Tunghua
Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American
Psychologist, 41, 1040-1048.。
Fitts, P.(1962). Factor in complex skill training. In R. Glaser (Ed.). Training
research and education. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Kang, Zi-li, et al. (1994). The Theoretical Research on Curriculum of Vocational
Education- the Study of the Development of Technical Skills of Machine Tech
and Electric Machinery Students in Vocational High Schools. Project Report of
National Science Council.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D. & Larkin, K. C. (1984). Relation of self efficacy
expectations to academic achievement and persistence. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 31(3), 356-362.
Leung, J. J. (1993). Chinese-Canadian-childrens＇ attitude toward schoolwork and
perception of parental behaviors that support schoolwork. ERIC Document
Reproduction Service NO. ED357358.
Main, R. G. (1993). Integrating motivation into the instructional design process.
Educational Technology, 33(12), 37-41.。
Markus, H. M., & Rurulo, A. (1990). Possible selves: Personalized representations of
goals. In L. Pervin(Ed . ) , Goal concepts in psychology (pp.211 -241).。
Newman, R. S. (1990). Children＇s help-seeking in the classroom: The role of
motivational factors and attitudes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1),
71-80.
Pintrich, P. R. (1987). The dynamic interplay of student motivation and cognition in
the college classroom. In C. Ames, & M. Maehr (Eds.), Advances in motivation
and achievement: Motivation enhancing environments (vol. 6, pp.117-160). CT:
JAI Press.
Pokay, P., & Blumenfled, P. C. (1990). Predicting achievement early and late in the
semester: The role of motivation and use of learning strategies. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 82(1), 41-50.
Schunk, D. H. (1986). Self-regulation through overt verbalization during cognitive
shill learning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Educational Research Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 269 147)
Shi, Jia-Fei (2004). The Relation between Vocational Electrical Selected skilled
Students’ Time Management Ability and School Achievement. The Thesis of
Department of Industrial Education and Technology of National Changhua
University of Education. 093NCUE5037121.
Trawick (1988). Relationships among cognitive-motivational processes and academic
performance in community college students with a history of academic failure.
Paper presented at annual meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, New Orleans, LA.
Weiner, B. (1990). History of motivation research in education. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 82(4),616-622.。
Wu, Guo-ye (2002). The Influence of Thematic Curriculum Integration on the
Motivation of Students in Elementary Schools for Science Learning. Taichung:
The Thesis of Department of Science Application and Dissemination of
National Taichung University. Unpublished.
Wu, Shu-zhu (1998). The Relationships among Self-concept, Motivation to Learn
Mathematics, and Mathematics Achievement on Elementary Students. Pingtumg:
The Thesis of Graduate Institute of Educational Administration of National
Ping-tung University of Education. Unpublished.
Yang, Wan-Ho (2002). The Meta Research on Sheet Metal Trade in International
Vocational Training Competition. The Thesis of Institute of Technological and
Vocational Education of National Taipei University of Technology.
Unpublished.
Zhao, Zhi-Yang; Zhong, Rui-Guo; Zhang, Zhi-Long & Zhang, Zhao-Wei (1996). The
Study of the Development of Benchwork Technical Competence of Machine
Tech Students in Domestic Vocational High Schools. Proceedings of the 11th
National Technological and Vocational Education Conference. The
Technological and Vocational Education of Ministry of Education.