Fostering Basic Electronics Teaching Competencies: Impact of the School Teachers' Electronics Practicals Upskilling Program (STEP-UP)

School teachers, both experienced and novice, are bound to follow the predesigned K-12 curriculum focusing primarily on theoretical content knowledge. They have only limited opportunities to get acquainted with experiential teaching methods incorporating practical laboratory experiments. Deficiency of practical knowledge upskill programs predominantly affects teaching competence in subjects like basic electronics. Fostering electronics teaching competency is often ignored despite the higher significance of electronics. Further, there is a scarcity of research studies on the effectiveness of practical electronics training for school teachers. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the impact of a hands-on training cum experimentation program for school teachers organized by the IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) Kerala Chapter. Titled as ‘School Teachers' Electronics Practicals Upskilling Program (STEP-UP),‘ it envisioned upskilling school teachers of Kerala, a southern state in India. The STEP-UP was focused on basic electronics engineering for day-to-day applications. To study the impact of STEP-UP on school teachers, we used the Kirkpatrick model, an established method for evaluating training programs. The impact assessment of the training program is deliberated based on the revised Kirkpatrick model with the integration of STEP-UP keywords. It was inferred from the study that school teachers are interested in actively participating in practical skill development programs. Moreover, teachers' degree of involvement emphasizes the potential of such programs in enhancing teaching quality rooted in experiential learning. The paper ends with offering a few suggestions and recommendations in accordance with the research findings on the impact of STEP-UP.