Abstract
In this exploratory qualitative study, we describe instructors' self-reported practices for teaching and assessing students' ability to troubleshoot in electronics lab courses. We collected audio data from interviews with 20 electronics instructors from 18 institutions that varied by size, selectivity, and other factors. In addition to describing participants' instructional practices, we characterize their perceptions about the role of troubleshooting in electronics, the importance of the ability to troubleshoot more generally, and what it means for students to be competent troubleshooters. One major finding of this work is that, while almost all instructors in our study said that troubleshooting is an important learning outcome for students in electronics lab courses, only half of instructors said they directly assessed students' ability to troubleshoot. Based on our findings, we argue that there is a need for research-based instructional materials that attend to both cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of troubleshooting proficiency. We also identify several areas for future investigation related to troubleshooting instruction in electronics lab courses.
Highlights
Troubleshooting is a critical skill in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines [1,2,3], including experimental physics [4, 5]
We describe troubleshooting as a cognitive task and we provide an overview of cognitive apprenticeship as it relates to troubleshooting instruction
We describe 20 electronics lab instructors’ perspectives on troubleshooting instruction
Summary
Troubleshooting is a critical skill in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines [1,2,3], including experimental physics [4, 5]. Electronics courses are ideal environments for physics students to practice and hone their troubleshooting skills because students naturally engage in troubleshooting during most circuit-building lab activities. Understanding instructors’ perceptions of troubleshooting and its connection to electronics courses is necessary for the development of research-based assessments and activities that are relevant to instructors. Understanding instructors’ teaching and assessment practices could infuse future transformation efforts with creative ideas already being implemented by seasoned practitioners. To these ends, we report on instructors’ perceptions about, and experiences with, troubleshooting instruction in electronics courses. Cognitive task analyses of troubleshooting typically describe the types of knowledge, cognitive subtasks, and strategies required for competent troubleshooting [3, 12, 49]. We focus on the knowledge, subtasks, and strategies that are most relevant to the present work
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