ARTICLE
11 November 2026

Reconstructing the “Competency-Based—Digitally Empowered” Dual-Wheel-Drive Teaching Model for Vocational Undergraduate Education in the Context of Generative Artificial Intelligence

Haoyun Zhang1*
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1 Sichuan College of Architectural Technology, Deyang 618000, Sichuan, China
IEF 2026 , 4(10), 133–138; https://doi.org/10.26689/IEF.v4i10.16097
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee: Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Vocational undergraduate classrooms have long faced the dual pull of “academic drift” and “vocational narrowness,” and the intervention of generative artificial intelligence has further complicated this contradiction: the abundance of technological tools does not automatically translate into a deepening of competency cultivation; on the contrary, it may obscure the “logic of competency” with the “logic of efficiency.” Grounded in competency-based education theory and in light of the overlapping “academic” and “vocational” characteristics of vocational undergraduate education, this paper proposes a reconstruction approach for a “competency-based—digitally empowered” dual-wheel-drive teaching model: anchored on a job-competency map, driven by a three-level project chain of “basic functions—compound functions—system integration,” closed by an AI-assisted evaluation of “process-based competency evidence,” and supported by teacher competency transformation and institutional safeguards, so that the use of digital tools is always subject to the test of whether it has promoted the generation of complex vocational competencies. The study argues that the essence of dual-wheel drive is not a simple superposition of “competency” and “technology,” but rather the disciplining of technological logic by competency logic, so as to prevent generative AI from pushing vocational undergraduate teaching into a new trap that “looks efficient but is hollow at its core.”

Keywords
Vocational undergraduate education
Competency-based
Generative artificial intelligence
Digital empowerment
Teaching model
References

[1] Wang YK, Tang HT, Peng Q, et al., 2026, Construction and Application of a “Competency-Based—Digitally Empowered” Teaching Reform Model for the Software Engineering Technology Program in Vocational Undergraduate Education. Computer Education, 2026(8): 234–239. https://doi.org/10.16512/j.cnki.jsjjy.2026.08.034

[2] Jiang SH, Wang YF, 2026, The Reconstruction Logic and Its Realization of the Talent Cultivation Paradigm in Vocational Undergraduate Education in the Era of Digital Intelligence. Theory and Practice of Education, 46(18): 17–23.

[3] Shi YY, 2025, Construction of the Professional Curriculum System of Vocational Undergraduate Education from the Perspective of Competency-Based Education: Conceptual Interpretation, Practical Dilemmas and Optimization Strategies. University Education, 2025(6): 31–36.

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