A Phenomenographic Analysis of Students' Experience of the Mohr Circle: A Case Study in Research-Led Engineering Education.

The case study presented in this paper was motivated by a teacher's desire to understand better the conceptual difficulties his students were experiencing with the topic of the Mohr Circle in a materials engineering course. To gain such an understanding, a phenomenographic study was undertaken based on student interviews. The findings of the study identified four categories of qualitatively different conceptions about the Mohr Circle that were evident among the students. These, together with a number of subcategories, provided a conceptual structure for modifying the way the course was taught and also highlighted particular aspects of the topic that required pedagogical attention. Although the study derives from a specific group of students and relates to a specific context, the insights reported in the paper may have relevance to other contexts and groupings of students. In particular, it demonstrates the utility of phenomenography as a useful methodology in research-led engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]