Conceptual analysis and implications of students' individual differences to curriculum implementation in technical education

Abstract

Individual differences refer to the unique ways each human being differs from another human being as expressed in behaviour or perceived in the physical appearance. Three factors of individual differences identified to be closely related to learning/acquisition of skills and performance of tasks. These are personality dimensions, self-efficacy and abilities. These factors individually and collectively have implications to implementation of curriculum in technical education. These implications presents the technical teacher with the challenges of understanding the students and planning instruction with due consideration to the needs, abilities, personalities and other individual differences related characteristics of the students. Among the various ways of coping with individual differences in curriculum implementation are through individualized instruction, the use of ICTs and software as Discrete Educational Software (DES), the use of problem-based or planning production and demonstration (PPD) to supplement classroom / workshop instructions.