Wow, what a journey. From landing in OZ (being given my skills audit), traveling the yellow brick road (filling in the gaps in my knowledge) to escaping the evil flying monkeys (procrastination, confusion and misinformation) I think I’ve finally arrived…

My attitude towards the whole of electronics at the start of this process was one of irrational panic and dislike. I’d never felt any inclination towards learning anything about electronics or how any of the devices I use day to day work. Things have changed so much! This subject is immense and so exciting. It’s no longer incomprehensible and intimidating, I understand how current flows through a circuit and what it will do when it reaches a component, I can now look at a circuit or circuit diagram and either know what it will do or have a good enough idea about the components used to work it out.

Right at the beginning of this project I defined competence for myself, my aim being to reach this rarefied state by the end of this semester. So the question is, am I there yet?

Here is an extract from my work on competence, it’s where I finally defined what I think it means to be competent:

So, what is competence? In doing this research my original definition now seems deficient. Competence is not just about having knowledge or understanding the theory of a subject, or even about being able to pass on that knowledge, it’s about being able to ‘do’ as well as ‘say’. To be competent in a subject you need to understand it but also to be able to apply your understanding, to make a product or to be able to understand why something isn’t working and how to fix it.

To be able to get to this point I have gone through the process of research and experimentation detailed in this project, gathering knowledge and working out how to use it. I had really underestimated my abilities in understanding electronics in general and the more work I put into the research and investigations at the start of this process the more a very surprising thing became obvious… It’s fun and I’m really interested in it! I had it in my head from the start of this year that I would be specialising in resistant materials but part way through this project that no longer seems like a concrete concept. I was picking up knowledge much faster and understanding concepts more quickly than I was expecting. The real breakthrough came when I started my first circuit experiments, actually making a circuit, even if it’s just a prototype, has been the best way to work out if I know my stuff. I started working my way towards being competent in reading and understanding circuit diagrams, able to put a circuit together and be confident that it would work on powering up.

At this stage in my process I had made headway into understanding my chosen subject and applying my understanding. Going further I moved on to more complex circuits previously far beyond my capabilities, and conquered them. Each one of my circuits worked (with only a couple of hiccups) and more than that I understood why and how they worked. I started to help other students in building their own circuits and relaying my gathered information on digital electronics to make things clearer. By the time I got to building and testing my binary to decimal counter I was already feeling competent, at least in interpreting the diagrams, prototyping the circuits and understanding the signals involved.

It was at this point that I was considering what I needed to do to actually prove competence, my natural inclination was to design and make a product but on reflection what would be the point? Any product I could come up with would be dealing with only part of my gathered knowledge so why make one? The light bulb moment came on talking to Dean and actually asking myself ‘Do you feel competent?’ the answer being ‘sort of’. The only area I was not comfortable with was in fault finding and troubleshooting, in each instance of one of my circuits not functioning it had taken either Dean or Steve to help me fix it and as I had stated in my definition I needed to be able to ‘understand why something isn’t working and how to fix it’. 

Without taking this step I would not be fully competent, it was also a major sticking point with me as the most frustrating thing about electronics has been powering up a circuit and not knowing why it’s not working. In going through a process of solving the issues in a series of circuits I now have a fuller understanding of the circuits themselves, not just being able to spot and correct issues. Looking at signals going to and from my ICs really presses home all the knowledge I’ve gathered, it makes it more present and accessible. 

Now that I’ve come to the end of this project I can confidently say that I consider myself to be competent in digital electronics but it goes further than that. In doing these investigations it has given me a wider appreciation for the subject of electronics and a thirst to continue my explorations. I no longer have that panicky feeling of not understanding when facing anything electronic, instead it has been replaced by a strong curiosity, wanting to understand this area that has so much to do with moder life and modern design.

I cannot emphasise enough how useful this process has been and how much it has added to my knowledge as a designer. I can carry the work done here not only through to my future career in teaching but also into my way of viewing the world, my decisions as a consumer and my creativity. I think I’ve arrived at the Emerald Castle and who knows… In a couple of years I may be replacing the wizard ;)

The Wizard has spoken!

After reviewing my progress to date with Dean I now have a way forward to prove my competence. I stated in one of my first posts what I deem to be competence:

 ’To be competent in a subject you need to understand it but also to be able to apply your understanding, to make a product or to be able to understand why something isn’t working and how to fix it.’

Throughout this project I have been working on making functioning digital circuits. Learning about how and why they work the way they do. I consider myself competent in this area. The only thing I have trouble with is the ‘why it doesn’t work and how to fix it’ bit. Each time I’ve had a circuit non functional after powering up I have a bit of a brain hiccup and all my analysing skills seem to fly out of my head. I have needed Dean or Steve to help me get things up and running again.

To complete my work and become competent I need to be able to show that I can do this bit myself. So… I’m going to make up some prototype circuits and get one of my lovely fellow students to break them (carefully checking for any underlying stresses that may make them take the work ‘break’ to extremes ). I’ll then sit down with my arsenal of analysing techniques and equipment and try and fix them.

Now I’m planning my own little projects to do over the summer! I love the intricacies and the logic in electronics, making my test circuits and seeing them work has been really exciting!

But… I have come to a point where I need to assess where I am with this project, I need to be developing competence but how far along have I come? Where do I need to go next? I’m still in the mindset that I need to make something, to finish my project by making a product and saying ‘Ta Dah!! I’m now competent!’ The more I think about this the more I’m not sure this is the way to go. I could make a product but what would be the point? I’ve already proven that I can build working digital circuits, there has to be something else that would be more worthwhile.

Hmmm… Need some input, looks like I need to speak to the Wizard.

I should start with the work I did way back when at the start of the course, the passage below is the introduction to my skills audit:

As this journal is designed to assess my capability in the subject areas listed at the start of each section of this document I thought it best to start by finding out what capable means. I looked at the dictionary definition of competence, capability and capable, the three best I have listed below:

Definition of Competence:

• 1, Having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, experience, etc., for some purpose; properly qualified
• 2. Adequate but not exceptional.
• Synonyms: fit, capable, proficient, able.

Source: Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2011.

Definition of Capability:

• 1. The quality of being capable; ability
• 2. A characteristic that may be developed; potential aptitude

Source: Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged© HarperCollins Publishers 2003

Definition of Capable:

• 1. Possessing ability, qualification, or susceptibility; having capacity
• 2. Possessing adequate power; qualified; able; fully competent
• Synonyms: Able; competent; qualified; fitted; efficient; effective; skillful.

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

All of these definitions state the need for a certain level of knowledge or experience, not to be an expert but to be effective. In effect I need to define this capability myself, when do I feel capable in an area of my subject? Is it when I feel able to take a test? Able to teach it? Or is it a confidence in myself, a state where I feel comfortable that I have a bedrock of knowledge and experience to build on and draw from. Where I can understand why something is as it is, not just how something works but why it works.

After being immersed in this course for the past 6 months I think I now have a better idea of what is expected of me and it moves beyond the definitions above. After doing some research into competence based assessment in education I can see the general characteristics that assessors are looking for in a student that is meant to be developing competence and also why there has been this move towards competence based assessment.

To order my thoughts it’s probably best if I start from the top. My first thoughts on competence is that it conveys a sense of ability, if you are competent in an area or skill you are able to carry out work related to it with little or no supervision. This linked in with the definitions I collected above, I had a general feeling of what I needed to do to reach the standard needed. After revisiting this I began to wonder, why are we being assessed this way? Would it not be easier to organise a course like that of GCSE D&T with focused practical tasks, course work and an examination at the end just more concentrated? Wouldn’t this ensure that all of us would understand and learn what was expected of us? To be given such an open brief on developing competence with no solid guidelines on the exact content of our outcome initially felt overwhelming. I felt like asking ‘but, aren’t you going to tell us what we need to know?’

The problem is that an intensive course with everything that we need to do laid out for us to just pick up, memorise and practice would not help us to really understand our chosen subject. The problem would be the tendency to fall into surface learning, like having a tick list, do these things and you’ll pass rather than really getting us to engage with our work. A quote from a recent program on education and assessment really stuck with me. One student was asked how she was finding being given comments to aid her progress rather than using the traditional grading system, her answer was really telling ‘The comments are OK but I want them to bring back grades, the only reason I do the work is to get the grades’. Giving us the skills audit and asking us to autonomously make our own investigations encourages us to go deeper, to develop our interests and build a body of knowledge that will stay with us, not just fade away over periods when it is not being used.

Another problem with traditional assessment can be the wording in the documentation given to students. It’s not often clear what is being said by an assessment criteria, sometimes things that are supposed to help make this clear can in fact make things worse. For example: essay writing guides, it may say that to get a good grade you need and incisive introduction, but what does that really mean?!? Some feel that this opacity can lead to the student becoming uncertain about what they need to do, resulting in reverting back to strategies ingrained in their schooling, strategies that stem from surface learning and can lead to simple regurgitation of facts and ideas (Edwards and Knight 1995)

Competence bases assessment is much more flexible, it works by giving you a clear goal but the method of achieving it is left open. You can choose what ever learning/investigating/development method that suits you best, maximising your potential (as long as you stay motivated!). This autonomous investigation also has the added benefit of encouraging deeper learning, you are free to pursue what you find interesting therefore the knowledge gathered is personal to you, it means more than just having it given to you to memorise.

At this point in my research I have collated a list of terms assiciated with competence: autonomy, self motivation, problem solving, reliability, reflection, well rounded, self monitoring, aware of wider knowledge/issues, practical, replication and engagement. Below is a table of a taxonomy of objectives for professional education; it’s easy to see the similarities:

(Edwards and Knight, 1995, pp.125)

So, what is competence? In doing this research my original definition now seems deficient. Competence is not just about having knowledge or understanding the theory of a subject, or even about being able to pass on that knowledge, it’s about being able to ‘do’ as well as ‘say’. To be competent in a subject you need to understand it but also to be able to apply your understanding, to make a product or to be able to understand why something isn’t working and how to fix it.

Tall order… I’ve made a start in the keypad safe project but I have so much more to cover before I reach competence!