DETERMINATION OF STUDENTS’ MASTERY AND ERRORS IN AUTO-ELECTRICITY ASPECT OF AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING PRACTICE IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study assessed mastery and errors in auto-electricity skills of 1120 students in 23 technical colleges in North-Central Nigeria, using Auto-electricity Diagnostic Test (ADT). A diagnostic assessment was conducted and data were analysed using Q-matrix and diagnostic classification model (Posterior Marginal Probabilities for skills of a threshold of 0.5), error analysis, frequency counts and simple percentages. Findings of the study revealed that students have low mastery of all the auto-electricity skills and the common errors they commit in solving problems in auto-electricity are; conceptual, careless, procedural, application and precision errors. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that teachers need to be exposed to the knowledge of developing, conducting diagnostic assessment and how to provide remediation to students who are having learning difficulties in auto-electricity to improve their mastery of the trade, so that no child is left behind in the teaching and learning of the trade.