Electromagnetics Misconceptions: How Common Are These Amongst First- and Second-year Electrical Engineering Students?

Abstract

For 27 years, he taught physics and mathematics at high school level, most recently as Head of physics at Rangitoto College, New Zealand's largest secondary school. This period also saw him setting and marking national examinations, and training high-school teachers. He has a successful, established and ongoing publication record where high-school physics texts are concerned, covering more than 20 years. Since the start of 2002, he has lectured in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Auckland. The scholarship of teaching and learning provides his research interests, in particular: the conceptual understanding of students, the high-school to university interface, computer-assisted learning, and computer-based assessment.

Students’ difficulties with vector calculus in electrodynamics

“…Introductory electricity and magnetism (E&M) courses are a popular setting to learn about student misconceptions. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] A fair amount of research has been carried out on the use of integrals in E&M. [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] This research informs the work we present here, since we have adopted some of the ideas and methodologies in these papers as a starting point for our own research. At Dublin City University students' ideas about integrals were investigated using an approach based on the idea of the concept image, i.e.…”

Enhancing Concept Inventory Analysis by Using Indexes, Optimal Histogram Idea, and the Likert Analysis

“…For this purpose, a shortened and simplified version of the EMCI test containing 20 items was initially conducted on the first-year students of the General Chemistry and Engineering on Mathematics and Informatics (EMI) branches, Faculty of Natural Sciences, throughout the years 2021 and 2022. The EMCI test used herein has been drafted based on the literature of Ding et al [24] and Notaros [26], and additional arguments are provided in [17][18][19]. The physics course takes place for 60 lessons in one semester for the EMI branch, and for chemistry, there are 120 classes in two semesters, including 30 classes for laboratory work.…”

“…Notice that by nature, the study of knowledge issues is a dynamic and complex process, so the concept inventories have been expanded and improved impressively regarding their uses, components, and analysis. For example, in Smaill & Rowe [17], Raduta [18], and McColgan et al [19], interesting developments of the CI analysis for several parts of electromagnetism are presented; in Laverty and Caballero [20], it is underlined the need for aligning standardized assessments with modern learning goals such as engagement in scientific practices; in Klymkowsky & Garvin-Doxas [14], it is highlighted the use of interactive assessments in which students are called upon to identify and justify their assumptions; in Sands et al [8], it is stated that concept inventories are not perfect tools, suggesting improvement from the measurement perspective, etc. In this view, there is little room for methodical novelties.…”

Engineering Professors' Conceptions on the Conceptual Field of Electrostatics in Mexico

“…Research on students' misconceptions of electromagnetism demonstrates that only between 30% and 40% of students correctly answer questions about electrostatics (Smaill & Rowe, 2012;Hashish et al, 2020). This is concerning, and it is likely that teachers' results are similar to those obtained by students and even as widely shared as students' misconceptions (Johnston & Miller, 2000).…”