Laboratory Work in Home Economics for Improved Performance of Third Year BTVTED Students

Abstract

Home Economics is adapting to the 21st century where practical skills and hands-on experiences lead to potential technical- vocational career journeys. Laboratory works provides the opportunity to learn important life skills, such as cooking, nail services, cosmetology, and textile and sewing. It is a link between theory and practice in teaching and learning process that develop student's creativity problem solving capabilities. However, the effectiveness of these teaching methods is dependent upon their systematic implementation, with schools and educators being key to transferring those hands-on skills to learners and fostering a progression from novice to expert through active learning and practical application.

With that, this paper explored the in integration of laboratory works to Home Economics lessons such as cookery, nail services, cosmetology and textile and sewing. Descriptive research design was utilized in the study. Results showed that students demonstrated satisfactory performance across various subjects. Incorporating laboratory work improved their performance in hands-on workshops, project-based learning, real-life simulations, and demonstrations. The integration of laboratory work was deemed effective in enhancing student performance both practical tasks and theoretical assessments. However, respondents identified resource shortages, safety concerns, and the gap between theory and practice as the primary challenges in utilizing laboratory work. The study concludes that laboratory work significantly enhances both practical and theoretical competencies of students. To address these challenges, strengthen experiential learning and bridge gap between academic instruction and real-world application, Realistic Experiences for Actual Learning (REAL) as a Job Shadowing Program, was proposed.