Comparing students' understanding of Gauss's and Ampere's laws with field sources in square-like symmetries

Hernandez, Eder; Campos, Esmeralda; Barniol, Pablo; Zavala, Genaro

doi:10.1119/perc.2021.pr.hernandez

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In the item "square-like symmetry," the shape family the most relevant source of interference in both contexts. It is relevant to notice that, in a previous study, it was found that surface features play an essential role in how students interpret and answer this item because it explores a different surface or trajectory than what is traditionally studied in the electricity and magnetism course (Hernandez et al, 2021). When analyzing the interference of magnetism elements in the use of Gauss's law, any student who would mention a square rather than a cube or circle rather than a sphere (e.g., "it is a square" or "it is not a circle"), was considered an interference because Amperian trajectories are two-dimensional while Gaussian surfaces are three-dimensional.…”

Section: Coding Family: Shapementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Based on the literature about interference between electricity and magnetism concepts and our observations while analyzing the data for previous studies (Barniol & Zavala, 2015, Campos et al, 2023Hernandez et al, , 2021Hernandez et al, , 2022, we found the opportunity to identify how some elements of magnetism may be present when students reason about Gauss's law, and elements of electricity may be present when students reason about Ampere's law. By the elements of electricity or magnetism, we mean specific words in students' explanations or specific letters in students' written equations that hint at the opposite context (for example, calling the electric field the "magnetic field").…”

Section: Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The parallel codes in both contexts allowed for triangulation between the two instruments. In other studies (Campos et al, 2023;Hernandez et al, 2021), we focused on conceptual difficulties rather than the appearance of interference; the former requires a profound interpretation of students' answers. In this case, there is no interpretation from the researcher's perspective, only observation of whether the interfering word or element in an equation is present.…”

Section: Emerging Codesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning interference between electricity and magnetism? Analysis of patterns and consistency

Campos

Hernandez

Barniol

et al. 2023

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed

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Due to the similarities between Gauss’s and Ampere’s laws, students can present cognitive interference when learning these laws in the introductory physics course. This study aims to analyze the interference patterns that emerge in students’ answers when solving problems that involve Gauss’s and Ampere’s laws and related concepts (e.g., electric flux and magnetic circulation). We conducted a study of 322 engineering students attending a private Mexican university. We applied two open-ended questionnaires with questions that prompted using Gauss’s and Ampere’s laws. We analyzed students’ answers to identify whether they presented some word or element of an equation from the opposite context and coded them into coding families. We analyzed the consistency of interference by counting the times each student presented some interference in general and by coding family. The results indicated that the interferences related to the shape of the Gaussian surface or Amperian trajectory and field-related concepts are shared among contexts. However, the interference related to the source of the field (charge or current) is predominant in magnetism. In contrast, the interference related to using elements from the opposite context in an equation predominates in electricity. In other words, students referred to currents as charges and wrote equations that contained B (for magnetic field) or other similar elements in Gauss’s law. The general consistency analysis revealed that around half the students presented at least one interference in both contexts. We recommend that the interference between electricity and magnetism in Gauss’s and Ampere’s laws must not be overlooked. This study’s findings can guide introductory and intermediate electricity and magnetism instructors to address this interference phenomenon.

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Section: Coding Family: Shapementioning

confidence: 98%