An evaluation of students’ practical intelligence and ability to diagnose equipment faults

Abstract

Acquiring practical intelligence play an important role in laboratory work and it occurs when the students are performing tasks the laboratory. Nonetheless, practical intelligence has not yet been assessed or measured. Furthermore, since engineering practice also relies on substantial practical intelligence, it would be useful to study the extent to which students acquire this. The aim of this research is to find ways to measure changes in practical intelligence in order to assess informal learning in engineering laboratory classes. We would also like to test the relationship between practical intelligence acquired in laboratory classes with the ability to diagnose simple experiment faults in laboratory arrangements. A methodology of evaluating practical intelligence and assessment of faults diagnosis tasks are described and the results of this study are discussed.