| _version_ | 1866901148743499776 |
|---|---|
| author | Staffas, Kjell E. R. |
| author_facet | Staffas, Kjell E. R. |
| contents | The author experiences big differences in the engineering students' ability to connect basic principles learnt in earlier courses with new concepts in a course on analogue electronics where the basic principles are the fundamentals to master the new knowledge, i.e. Ohm's law and Kirchoff's current and voltage law. Simple mathematical consequences such as dimension analysis and the meaning of the equal sign is ignored or simply not in their mind, and a reflection on the plausibility of the answer is seldom there. The students' seems to easily fall into a standard solution they remember and lack the ability to understand what actually the problem to solve is. From a survey including eleven 2nd and 3rd year students, in the span of failed exam several times to top students, it is clear that this is not only a problem for the students struggle to pass, but also from the higher performing students there are misconceptions on basic principles. This paper discusses issues on understanding and gained knowledge in the field of electrical circuits and electronics from a mathematical and conceptual view, their previous gained knowledge and the students' perception on how to study. The data comes from a test of exam questions with "check-up questions" on basic principles, a short survey on study pattern and selected interviews with five of the students from their performance on the test and/or their answers on the survey. The author suggests a model on how to highlight a new study pattern from basic principles and their future professional role. |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_14647087 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | Higher education in engineering – a fragmented puzzle of bits and pieces? Staffas, Kjell E. R. conceptual understanding mathematical consequences study pattern abstract learning The author experiences big differences in the engineering students' ability to connect basic principles learnt in earlier courses with new concepts in a course on analogue electronics where the basic principles are the fundamentals to master the new knowledge, i.e. Ohm's law and Kirchoff's current and voltage law. Simple mathematical consequences such as dimension analysis and the meaning of the equal sign is ignored or simply not in their mind, and a reflection on the plausibility of the answer is seldom there. The students' seems to easily fall into a standard solution they remember and lack the ability to understand what actually the problem to solve is. From a survey including eleven 2nd and 3rd year students, in the span of failed exam several times to top students, it is clear that this is not only a problem for the students struggle to pass, but also from the higher performing students there are misconceptions on basic principles. This paper discusses issues on understanding and gained knowledge in the field of electrical circuits and electronics from a mathematical and conceptual view, their previous gained knowledge and the students' perception on how to study. The data comes from a test of exam questions with "check-up questions" on basic principles, a short survey on study pattern and selected interviews with five of the students from their performance on the test and/or their answers on the survey. The author suggests a model on how to highlight a new study pattern from basic principles and their future professional role. |
| title | Higher education in engineering – a fragmented puzzle of bits and pieces? |
| topic | conceptual understanding mathematical consequences study pattern abstract learning |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14647087 |