CREATIVITY SKILLS NEEDED BY ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION STUDENTS FOR DOMESTIC AND INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATION IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES OF GOMBE STATE
Keywords:
Creativity Skills, Domestic Electrical Installation, Industrial Electrical Installation, Technical Colleges, Practical SkillsAbstract
This study investigated the creativity skills needed by Electrical Installation and Maintenance Works (EIMW) students for domestic and industrial installation tasks in technical colleges of Gombe State, Nigeria. Anchored on Piaget's (1950) cognitive constructivism, complemented by Dewey's (1938) and Kolb's (1984) experiential learning perspectives, the study adopted a descriptive survey design and drew its population from all 21 administrators and 54 EIMW teachers across the seven Government Science and Technical Colleges (GSTCs) in Gombe State, giving a census sample of 75 respondents. Data were collected using a validated 20-item structured questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.87) and analysed using mean, standard deviation, and independent-samples t-test at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed nine creativity skills needed for domestic installation, including designing customised electrical layouts, applying innovative wiring techniques, and interpreting and modifying blueprints (cumulative mean of 3.79 across all ten domestic items, including the one item that fell below the 3.50 cut-off). For industrial installation, eight creativity skills were identified, including designing industrial control panels, integrating renewable energy into industrial setups, and implementing automation in electrical systems (cumulative mean of 3.65 across all ten industrial items, including the two items that fell below the cut-off). The t-test results showed no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of administrators and teachers for either domestic installation (t = 0.84, p = 0.40) or industrial installation (t = 1.56, p = 0.12), indicating a shared understanding of these creativity needs across both groups of stakeholders. The study recommends that technical colleges in Gombe State prioritise the procurement of modern tools, structured hands-on exercises, and blueprint-interpretation practice to nurture these creativity skills among EIMW students.
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