@misc{Marterer, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Marterer, Verena}, title = {A Characterisation of Motives and Barriers to Taking up Academic Study in the Field of Electrical Engineering}, address = {Regensburg}, doi = {10.35096/othr/pub-6255}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-62550}, school = {Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg}, pages = {159}, abstract = {The problem description comes to the fore when the wide-ranging subject area of electrical engineering is combined and analyzed with different types of schools. It is becoming increasingly rare for elementary school children to come to grips with technology in the sense of recognizing functional interrelationships and understanding modes of action in the context of technical-practical confrontation. The picture at secondary schools is also rather sobering. Here, a strong focus on facts and knowledge and too little emphasis on modeling, application and problem solving lead to insufficient results in the cognitive area. In addition, a massive shortage of engineers and specialists with a technical and scientific orientation has been predicted for years and is being increasingly observed. The motivation of students in traditional lectures is decreasing and in general there is a decline of university students in technical subjects. These problems are not only known throughout Germany, but also internationally. Especially in developing countries, additional problems make technical education more difficult, regardless of the type of school. Therefore, this master thesis is evaluated in South Africa in order to consider as many influencing factors as possible. "Learning is experience. Everything else is simply information." - Methods and concepts developed in the thesis build upon this quote of Albert Einstein. Teaching methods are elaborated and applied for three different age groups and school types, depending on known influencing factors. The aim of this thesis is not to produce further findings in the sense of basic research, but to show ways in which the current situation can be steered in a different direction. It has been shown that technology lessons in elementary/secondary schools inspire interest in technical professions in the field of electrical engineering. Furthermore, the combination of frontal teaching, for a necessary theoretical background, together with student-active, action-oriented teaching shows advantages in terms of learning efficiency and an increase in performance levels for all three age groups. However, it could also be observed that factors such as social background, family influence and gender have partial effects on the promotion and education in the field of electrical engineering.}, language = {en} }