**4. Technical kits as illustrative training aids in vocational training**

The issue of kits has been debated and published in many professional journals, as well as at international conferences and seminars. An elementary general, comprehensive perspective of technical kits from a terminological and didactic point of view, including their application to teaching, is offered by J. Dostál [27] and later C. Serafin [28].

Before further analysis, it is useful to carry out some conceptual analysis, which in the case of technical building blocks can be done from two perspectives [28]:

	- application of didactic principles (such as demonstration, scientificity; connection between theory and practice; individual approach; appropriateness or permanence);
	- the integration of technical kits into the system of teaching aids;
	- a psychological and special pedagogical view of the kits as part of the pupil's development, both shaping and helping it;

*What is a technical kit?* The definition of this term (yes it is a term) must be approached from two perspectives - technical and pedagogical.

The dictionary definition [29] states that kits are "unified functional parts (blocks) that are physically and logically compatible with each other and facilitate the construction of assemblies with various industrial and laboratory uses". They are therefore "collections of objects that are to be assembled or joined to form a particular unit and also disassembled". This concept is a technical definition.

C. Serafin [28] states that construction kits are mainly teaching aids which, in order to facilitate the assembly of objects (devices), are defined by their parts, their construction using a presented pattern and/or personal imagination. According to C. Serafin [28], the purpose of using technical building blocks in teaching can be:

	- … we could go on.

The main goal of using technical kits in education can be considered to be the introduction of pupils to the basic knowledge of technical engineering and electronics, the deepening and expansion of their awareness, as well as the creation and improvement of their work skills and habits. The tasks solved with the use of kits on the basis of acquiring a certain degree of theoretical knowledge help with the development of logical and creative thinking. Furthermore, a successful assembly and performance of operations related to correctly closing and operating a circuit, device, or apparatus give the pupils a sense of self-realisation. The use of technical kits offers a suitable way to develop the technological knowledge of pupils, to deepen the illustrative nature of teaching, and at the same time to have pupils learn simple experimental work. Pupils find themselves in an active contact with studied phenomena, directly receive stimuli through their sensory organs, and thus specifically learn about the characteristics of the studied phenomena. When engaged in laboratory work, the pupils cause electrical phenomena and processes to occur, solving tasks and explaining the nature of the studied phenomena which they find hard to explain in terms of theory (this is especially true for electrical engineering). Finally, they arrive at conclusions, natural-scientific and technological theorems, and verify what was deductively communicated to them. This makes classes more interesting to pupils, and the acquired knowledge illustrative.

In connection with technical kits in the teaching environment, we can establish the most important positive and negative aspects (see below).

The positive aspects include [28]:


#### *Illustrative Techniques in the Primary School DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100568*


Negative aspects include [28]:


In this context, it is worth mentioning again the constructivist approach to education, where the constructivist theory emphasises the active participation of the subjects, i.e. that they do not acquire their knowledge passively, but construct it themselves. Learners' knowledge and skills are developed in an organised environment and are adapted to this environment in a complex way.

The constructivist approach in teaching is based primarily on the pupils' activities and is intended to lead to the development of their cognitive abilities, their thinking and creativity (both mental and manual). However, an important role is played by motivation, activation, autonomy and respect; respect for pupils who interpret new facts on the basis of their own understanding of what they have learned now and previously, their existing knowledge and experience. These mental structures thus form patterns as the basis for new, constructed knowledge.

If a teacher adopts a constructivist approach in his/her teaching, then he/she assesses and diagnoses the students' dispositions and attitudes towards the expected content and the way of processing it, and then adapts his/her practice to these results (for more details see L. Hajerová-Műllerová et al. [30]). It is therefore primarily up to the teacher (although the pupils play the main role here) to create the appropriate conditions and provide the materials to facilitate pupils' construction of knowledge, while respecting their individual peculiarities and pace. The teacher must ensure that pupils are active, motivate them, guide them and link their knowledge to activities and skills. Whether we want it or not, this construct is ideally combined with the use of constructive, technical building blocks.

#### **5. Technical kits and modelling**

The current concept of models and modelling is multifaceted and reflects the multiformity of human actions. Generally speaking, models can be divided into two groups [28]:

• *Models of reality* - these are models that are identical to the original in terms of their physical nature, they can also be mathematical models whose purpose is to discover/clarify laws that will be experimentally verified. In this concept, models are isomorphic, as there is an analogy between the elements of the model and the objects being modelled, while the interrelationships are preserved. Three aspects apply to models - reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity.

• *Theoretical models* - these are always mathematical models that are based on either a model of reality or a model of theory. However, within this concept, not all parts of reality are modelled, the representation of elements is not mutually unambiguous, the relationships between the elements represented are not preserved or symmetry is missing. Such models are homomorphic.

Model can be understood as a mentally conceivable or materially realisable (technical) system that reflects or represents the object of investigation and that is capable of replacing it so that by examining it new information about the object being modelled can be obtained [31]. For example, the relevant configuration of wiring units, assembled by a student on an electronic kit, is an example of such a model, and thus represents to some extent the result of a back-transformation of the model (i.e., the electrical schematic) to the original original (i.e., the electrical device). In order to clearly differentiate technical kits from actual originals used in technical practice, it is more appropriate to call them "pseudo-originals".

In technical practice, one often encounters a "reverse transformation" (due to specific conditions), meaning the creation of a technical original, i.e. a new product, or an improvement of the technical condition (such condition is often addressed, for example, by amateur electronics). **Figure 1** shows a diagram for modelling technical practice by the application of technical kits.

Explanatory function is one of the most important roles any model can have. In relation to experiments, the term *modelling* can be understood to mean the relationship between two independent objects – a primary problem object, and a secondary model. Modelling makes it possible to solve a problem with a single object (be it a physical, or mathematical one), and then mentally infer the solution, using the second object. Therefore, the similarity between both objects or their behaviour always serves as the basis. Modelling can be divided into [31]:

	- a.*similarity modelling* the problems being solved are physically similar to one another which means that they share a non-dimensional description and that non-dimensional arguments correspond to one another, i.e. similarity criteria;
	- b.*analogue modelling* basically two identical problems, with the same mathematical description. Two objects which are physically completely different from one another (e.g. the flow of liquid in pipes vs. electric current in a conductor) can have the same mathematical description;

**Figure 1.** *Diagram for modelling technical practice by the application of technical kits.* • *Computational modelling* – a theory must be formulated for this type of modelling, but no physical model is necessary.

The modelling of technical reality and the process of creating technical models represent a fundamental area that accompanies the creation and application of technical kits in education [28]. As already mentioned here, working with technical building blocks develops technical imagination in students as an important intellectual activity, so very important and integral part of technical thinking. Technical thinking and technical imagination are two sides of the same coin, whose content is directed into the realm of technology and which, like the coin, cannot be separated. Technical imagination influences the development of technical thinking and technical thinking conditions technical imagination.

The purpose of working with technical building blocks in the context of both modelling and constructivism is for the pupil to be able to draw an analogy between the original and the model (a kind of pseudo-original) on the basis of the model. A necessary condition is the correspondence in the structure of both systems and their properties (the construction of any technical kit is then defined and limited by this condition). Thus, the technical object under study, whose model is created by means of a technical kit, is actually any device (black box) using this pseudo-original.

Modelling, the creation of models, is of course a creative activity and as such is part of technical experimentation and research, part of the cognitive process. In teaching, then, we call this activity an educational technical experiment as the realisation of a heuristic method of discovering new knowledge through a sophisticated procedure of observation, investigation, measurement and evaluation by exact means, i.e., measurement. The aim is to reveal new information about a phenomenon, material, etc.

Working with different kits is one of the chief points of general vocational training. The reason why we say this is that it is important to actively involve pupils in the subject of study. In case of technical kits, this is most often implemented by experiments – technical experiments, be it in regular classes held in a classroom, or at a laboratory. Technical experiments is to give pupils a sense of technical reality or processes. Experimental activities are a prominent part of the cognitive process and also a method for evoking direct experiences which result in the acquisition of knowledge.

Academic technical experiments are characterised by a systematic psychological activity for the purpose of acquiring knowledge which brings about deeper, but at the same time general technical thinking.

In the school environment, technical experiments include the development of pupils' independent creative activities and their logical thinking; the formation of scientific-technical notions about the studied object; the development of positive and realistic attitudes to technics; discovering physical laws; forming a correct relationship to technical-economic tools; and developing the pupils' ability to express themselves.

Academic technical experiments can be classified in many different ways, for example [2]:


Technical experiments supported by the use of technical kits encourage pupils to master the methods and experimental skills related to electrical engineering, as well as practical skills and general work habits. When using a technical kit in a school technical experiment, it is necessary for students to see the experiment as a necessary and natural consequence of their learning activities, to need to observe phenomena and to test theories.
