Learning influence factors on construction technology programs at vocational colleges in Johor

The Construction Technology program curriculum at vocational colleges in Malaysia consists of 32 skill-based core courses. Each course has theoretical and practical components. However, the cumulative results of each course showed students got higher marks for practical components than theoretical ones. A preliminary study applying a focus-group data-collecting technique was conducted to identify factors influencing students' learning that caused low achievement in the theoretical component. Factors identified were class timetable, workshop facility and the teaching strategy of the lecturer. These factors have been used as research variables for this quantitative study, which has been conducted at five out of six vocational colleges in Johor that are offering the program. 140 of the first and second year students of the program have been selected randomly as the sample for the study. A set of questionnaires was developed as a research instrument and was verified by two experts. The validity value of the questionnaire was alpha = 0.866. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, mean and standard deviation, which was assisted by computer software. The findings of the study showed that all research variables influenced students' learning of the theoretical components of Construction Technology courses at a high level (class timetable: mean = 4.20 and standard deviation = 0.921; workshop facility: mean = 4.27 and standard deviation = 0.872; teaching strategy: mean = 4.42 and standard deviation = 0.811). The overall mean level of the influence of these three variables was also high, with a mean value = 4.30 and standard deviation = 0.868. This study suggests the class timetable, the workshop facility and the teaching strategy of the lecturer should be improved to help students of these programs obtain high marks in the theoretical component of each course.