An Empirical Study on Enhancing College Students’ Labor Competence through the PDCA-based TPLEL Model

Abstract

This study constructs and validates the TPLEL (Theory-Practice Bridging Labor Education Lectures) Model—a lecture-based intervention operationalized through the PDCA cycle—designed to address the theory-practice gap and enhance university students’ labor competence. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was employed with 206 first-year undergraduates. The intervention comprised five PDCA-driven lectures integrating theoretical instruction with practical activities. Labor competence was measured using the four-dimension scale developed by Wang Zhengqing et al. (2021), which assesses labor values, labor knowledge, labor skills, and innovative labor. Paired-sample t-tests revealed significant improvements in overall labor competence with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.07, p < 0.001). Notably, the knowledge-skills gap narrowed from 0.18 to 0.02, suggesting that the theory-practice disconnect was substantially alleviated. The TPLEL Model offers an actionable, replicable, and iterative pathway for bridging theory-practice gaps. Universities may benefit from adopting lecture-based bridging mechanisms integrated with PDCA cycles and establishing regular competency assessments using standardized scales to drive evidence-based curriculum improvement.