Obstacles in Signals and Systems Conceptual Learning
Kathleen E. Wage, John R. Buck, and Cameron H. G. Wright
Abstract
A quantitative assessment of undergraduate signals and systems
students highlights several persistent misconceptions, indicated by
students choosing the same wrong answer to a question before and after
a signals and systems course. The assessment consists of
administering the multiple choice Signals and Systems Concept
Inventory as pre-test and a post-test for the course. The SSCI data
also show that students' conceptual understanding at the end of
continuous time courses is significantly correlated with their
understanding at the start of a subsequent discrete time course, but
not at the end of the discrete time course. Correlation of SSCI
results with grades in prerequisite courses supports the notion that
students learn signals and systems better when they have an adequate
background in mathematics.
© 2004 IEEE. The article (PDF) appeared in Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Signal Processing Education Workshop, pp. 58-62, August 2004. This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
This article is password-protected. Email John Buck (johnbuck [at] ieee.org) or Kathleen Wage (k.e.wage [at] ieee.org) to obtain the password.