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.