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D.Ed. In the past number of years the practical training of apprentice aircraft technicians has undergone a major change when it moved over to Modular Criterium Based Training. The theoretical training at technical colleges did not change phenominally over the past number of years. The aircraft industries thus requested that something should be done about the overlapping of the training. This problem could be effectively attended to by the present renewal that is busy occurring in the education and training in South Africa. If the technical colleges' learning programs could be curriculated and presented as outcome based programs, as suggested by the discussion document of the Department of Education (Department of Education, 1997b), it could be to the advantage of apprentice aircraft technicians and the whole aircraft industry in the future. An outcomes based curriculum framework is suggested in this study for the design of a curriculum framework for Aircraft Theory. Guidelines were discussed on how such a curriculum framework could be designed for Aircraft Theory, but these guidelines could be used with good results on the other trade theory subjects in the technical colleges in order that these courses could also be re-curriculated to be presented as outcomes based. The curriculum framework which was determined by the suggested outcomes based framework, have a situation analysis and critical outcomes as a first step in order that specific outcomes could be determined in the next step. The assessment is done according to assessment criteria and range statements as a third step and after this the performance indicators are left to the lecturer/facilitator to, in co-operation with the learners, determine it. These different steps have a close relationship with each other and need not be determined as rigid steps which have to follow each other. A point that should be kept in mind is that the changes in technical colleges could not only be of a cosmetic nature, to present outcomes based courses the daily timetable will be different and it will have many other administrative implications. The course will concentrate much less on subjects like Mathematics, Engineering Science and Engineering Drawing, although these subjects will still be there present in them, but not with such intensity. The writer would prefer a system which is used in Germany (Bayerisches Staatsministerium far Unterricht, Wissenschaft and Kunst, 1994: 4) where the "Fachtheorie" is prominent and the "Fachrechnen" and "Fachzeichnen" are much less prominent. The necessary implications at the National Qualification Framework will have to be addressed in order that the course will enjoy recognition in this setup too. The training of apprentice aircraft technicians could be improved further if the technical colleges and the training centres of the aircraft industry would take the time to determine which training will be done in which organisation and to spell it out clearly. Furthermore they should be closely working together to the advantage of the aircraft technical apprentices and eventually to the advantage of the aircraft industry as a whole. |
