Students' interest in their misconceptions in first-year electrical circuits and mathematics courses

Based on deployment throughout a term, this paper suggests the potential of a computer-based approach to promote learner awareness of their knowledge states. We consider in particular the extent to which students are interested in finding out about their misconceptions in the context of independent study. It was found that many first-year students held misconceptions in introductory electrical circuits and mathematics courses at some stage of their learning, and most viewed information about their misconceptions to assist them in identifying their problems. We suggest, therefore, that an approach of highlighting an individual's misconceptions can be found useful by students to help them recognise their knowledge, difficulties and misconceptions to support self-assessment and facilitate their identification of an appropriate focus of their efforts, to meet their learning needs.