A case study of student reasoning about feedback control in a computer-based learning environment

This paper presents a case study of how two high school students´ conceptions of feedback control changed in the course of their work in a computer-based learning environment called the Feedback Articulate Virtual Laboratory (FAVL). The study focuses on the nature of the components in the students versus an expert´s mental model and the manner in which these components were described, as abstract or as concrete, and differentiated. This paper ends with a discussion of possible difficulties students may have learning an expert´s conception of feedback and the implications on the design of learning environments.