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

Based on deployment throughout a term, this paper suggests the potential of a computerbased approach to promote learner awareness of their knowledge states. We consider in particular the extent to which students are interested in fi nding out about their misconceptions in the context of independent study. It was found that many fi rst-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, diffi culties and misconceptions to support selfassessment and facilitate their identifi cation of an appropriate focus of their efforts, to meet their learning needs.