Traffic Signal System Misconceptions Across Three Cohorts: Novice Students, Expert Students, and Practicing Engineers

Both research evidence and theories of situated knowledge suggest that students are not prepared for the engineering workforce upon graduation from engineering programs. Concept inventory results from diverse fields also suggest that students do not understand fundamental concepts of engineering, mathematics, and science. These concerns may result from different knowledge deficiencies: one from a lack of conceptual understanding and the other from a lack of applied knowledge. In an attempt to explain the patterns in misconceptions across three cohorts, the research goals of this paper are to identify misconceptions (knowledge about phenomena that are persistent and incorrect) related to traffic signal operations and design across the cohorts of novice engineering students, expert engineering students, and practicing engineers. Results indicate three misconception patterns (decreasing, increasing, and no change) across the three cohorts. The pattern of decreasing misconception can be explained by a traditi...