Download or read book Analysis of Student Understanding of Basic AC Concepts written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This project began with a study on student understanding of the basic concepts of voltage, current, and power in DC and AC circuits. Protocol studies revealed that beginning student knowledge of the domain is "in pieces". Students had difficulty in differentiating key concepts such as voltage and current, lacked the ability to map from physical processes to abstract notation, and experienced problems because they had incomplete mappings for metaphors and analogies. Because of "invisible nature" of electricity, students had very few preconceived notions about the domain and most of what they learned was gained through instruction. In the second phase of the project, our emphasis shifted to a study on how to prepare students to learn difficult DC and AC circuit concepts, and to assess how instruction in these topics improved problem solving behavior. This led to our framework for Assessment of Domain Learnability (ADL) and the implementation of a computer environment, STAR-Legacy, that integrates instruction with dynamic assessment. Preliminary studies demonstrated improved student understanding and problem solving capability in the DC circuit domain. We also extended our AC protocol studies to characterize student understanding of more advanced AC concepts using problems dealing with voltage regulators and filter circuits.