Do you catch my drift? Identification of misconceptions of emergence for the semiconductor phenomenon drift.

Recent research in learning science has focused on students’ misconceptions about emergence. In emergent phenomena, the interactions of the agents in the phenomenon aggregate and form a self-organizing pattern that can be seen at a higher level. One such emergent system, drift, is a fundamental mechanism for semiconductors. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the presence and prevalence of misconceptions about emergence students have about drift, and to determine what relationships existed between the identified misconceptions. Forty-one undergraduate engineering students participated in the written protocol study. Participants’ responses were coded and analyzed using written protocol analysis. A total of 10 emergent misconceptions were observed for drift. Sixtythree percent of participant responses exhibited an emergent misconception, with participants typically anthropomorphizing the electrons’ actions in the phenomenon. Quantitative analyses were completed utilizing nonparametric Kendall’s taub correlation demonstrated significant relationships between the goal-directed nature of the phenomenon and electron volition (0.45, <0.05), the predictability and causal reasons for the phenomenon’s pattern (0.31, <0.05), and the not random predictable aspects of the phenomenon (0.31, p<0.05). Results indicated that undergraduate engineering students hold misconceptions related to emergence regarding drift and that these misconceptions are prevalent. Furthermore, the relationships observed indicated that learners may view emergence in particular ways – offering insight into how educators can better prepare and develop learning material.