Paper Info
Title
Students' Misconceptions About Medium-Scale Integrated Circuits
Abstract
To improve instruction in computer engineering and computer science, instructors must better understand how their students learn. Unfortunately, little is known about how students learn the fundamental concepts in computing. To investigate student conceptions and misconceptions about digital logic concepts, the authors conducted a qualitative interview-based study. In the interviews, students verbalized their thinking while they solved digital logic problems. The interviews were analyzed to identify students' misconceptions. This paper presents five classes of students' misconceptions and methodological weaknesses concerning medium-scale integrated (MSI) circuits. These misconceptions were used to create a multiple-choice conceptual assessment, called a concept inventory, that is being used to test for the prevalence of the misconceptions discovered through the interviews. Although the misconceptions documented in the paper are primarily intended for the construction of the concept inventory, they can also point to potential ways to improve instruction.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1109/TE.2011.2104361
Education, IEEE Transactions
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Boolean algebra,computer science education,electrical engineering education,integrated circuits,computer engineering,computer science,concept inventory,instruction,medium scale integrated circuits,qualitative interview based study,students,Boolean algebra,combinational circuits,computer science education,integrated circuit,logic circuits
Journal
54
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
4
0018-9359
7
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.75
4
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Geoffrey L. Herman112325.37
Michael C. Loui237450.66
Craig B. Zilles393294.74