Marine Engineering Students’ Theoretical and Practical Performance in Lathe Machine Operation: Basis for Developing an Enhancement Program

This study examines marine engineering students’ theoretical knowledge and practical skills in lathe operations, emphasizing workplace safety. It underscores the need to develop competencies aligned with the increasing complexity of real-world environments. Specifically, it assesses students’ theoretical and practical performance and explores the relationship between these variables. A descriptive-correlational research design with a quantitative approach was used. The participants were 345 second-year students from the selected Maritime School in Iloilo and Bacolod City, Philippines. Secondary data were utilized specifically for the midterm lecture grades in the Machine Shop 2 subject during the academic year 2022–2023. Means, standard deviations, and Spearman’s rho were used, with an alpha level set at 0.05. Engine students exhibited very good theoretical understanding and excellent practical skills in lathe machine operations. However, their familiarization performance must be improved. A statistically significant yet weak correlation was identified between theoretical knowledge and practical performance. The weak yet statistically significant correlation between theory and practice underscores the need for further exploration of pedagogical strategies to bridge this gap. An enhancement program was developed to improve students’ performance. This program aims to further augment students’ abilities and bridge the gaps between theory and practice. Future research could focus on evaluating the effectiveness of enhancement programs, understanding barriers to familiarization performance, and examining similar dynamics in other technical disciplines.