Research and Categorization of Conceptual Difficulties in Electricity’s Concepts and Basic Laws

Frache, Ghassan; Vavasis, Gerasimos; Mkrttchian, G.; Stavropoulos, K.; Kapotis, E.; Nistazakis, Hector E.; Tombras, George S.

doi:10.1109/educon.2019.8725271

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…More specifically, for electrical phenomena there are several studies on students' understanding of basic concepts like current, potential difference, resistance [1], [2], [3] and laws such as Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws [4], [5], [6]. These studies have confirmed that the difficulties faced by the students are both conceptual and reasoning and create misunderstanding and alternative ideas [2], [7], [8]. The degree of difficulty seems to be greatest when in the electric circuits the battery is real, that is when the students must use the concept of the electromotive force (emf).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

High School Students’ Difficulties and their Causes due to the Electromotive Force, in the Study of Direct Current Simple Electric Circuits

Vavasis

Kapotis

Tombras

2022

Int. J. Recent Contrib. Eng. Sci. IT

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This work is part of a larger research, conducted in Greece, about the students' difficulties in understanding the concepts and phenomena of Electricity. The goal of this study is to present the high school students’ difficulties and their causes into the study of basic direct current (dc) circuits, due to the concept of the electromotive force (emf). Researches in over the world have highlighted that the concepts of the emf and the potential difference (pd) create many problems to the students in the study of dc circuits. These difficulties are presented, analyzed and is made an attempt to identify their causes. The results show that, in addition to confirming the existing literature enriched with new findings, to address these difficulties is necessary the development of a teaching approach based on an education model with a new curriculum, where needed (in Greece, for example) and an appropriate education material so that to overcome the lack of understanding of the concepts and laws shown by the students.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

High School Students’ Difficulties and their Causes due to the Electromotive Force, in the Study of Direct Current Simple Electric Circuits

Vavasis

Kapotis

Tombras

2022

Int. J. Recent Contrib. Eng. Sci. IT

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“…Electricity is one of the areas of physics broadly studied concerning students' conceptual understanding (Leniz et al, 2020). The latest studies report that students have serious difficulties analyzing and describing electrical phenomena (Chang & Shieh, 2018;Eshetu & Alemu, 2018;Frache et al, 2019;Jiang et al, 2018;Kalaya et al, 2019;Manunure et al, 2020;Mbonyiryivuze et al, 2022). The literature has abundant evidence of misconceptions about simple electrical circuits, common even among students who have had formal instruction in the relevant material (Kokkonen & Mäntylä, 2018;Ortega-Alvarez et al, 2018;Villarino, 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Difficult are Simple Electrical Circuit Conceptions? New Findings

Quezada-Espinoza¹,

Domínguez²,

Zavala³

2023

EUROPEAN J ED RES

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<p style="text-align: justify;">Research on conceptual understanding is one of the first steps in designing materials to improve learning. Literature reports that students have difficulties analyzing and describing phenomena in electric circuits. This report contributes to students' conceptual difficulties regarding simple electrical circuits by systematically analyzing an open conceptual test answered by 531 first-year engineering students. We found students' reasoning that has not yet been reported in the literature as misconceptions or difficulties. To deepen our understanding of students' difficulties, we chose five students by convenience to interview. We present evidence that there are two main contributions to the taxonomy in this study: the Series Circuit Misconception, which is when students convey that the current through bulbs is the same because they are in series, using that as a mnemonic ignoring any change in the circuit; and the Inverse Parallel Circuit Misconception, that is when students mention that the resistance of the circuit decreases when disconnecting bulbs in parallel, neither are reported in the literature. The results of this study have implications for physics education research in electric circuits and educational practice in the classroom.</p>

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“…Resistance is an impediment to the current flow, considering that any addition of another resistance in the circuit leads to an increase in total resistance regardless of how the resistors are connected [2], [20], [17], [19], [18], [8].…”

Section: The Connection Of the Resistorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many problems of studying simple DC electrical circuits, students are asked to calculate the power and its variation (like the brightness of a lamp). From the students' answers in these problems result the difficulty of the power calculation dissipated on passive circuit elements [24], [17], [8].…”

Section: 4mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surveys have demonstrated that conceptions, such as current [1], potential difference [2], [3], terminal voltage and resistance [4] create many difficulties to the students' understanding. In addition it has been repeatedly proven that students have a series of misunderstandings and alternative ideas about these concepts [2], [5], [6], [7], [8], with a consequence the creation of many problems in understanding and applying complex concepts and laws, such as Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws [9], [10], [11]. Even after a systematic and fairly advanced study of the topic in high school or college, in which students become quite efficient in carrying out complicated algorithms (e.g., using Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws), they are still incapable of qualitatively analyzing simple circuits [2], [3], [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Research for a Teaching Approach: An Example of Addressing the High School Students’ Conceptual and Reasoning Difficulties in the Study of Direct Current Simple Electric Circuits

Vavasis

Kapotis

Tombras

2022

Int. J. Recent Contrib. Eng. Sci. IT

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With this work we aim at presenting a research on high school students’ (ages 16-17, Greece 2015-2017) understanding into the study of basic direct current (DC) circuits. Studies on this subject in over the world have contributed to a rich research base. Students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties are presented and analyzed, aiming at the development of methodologies and teaching approaches, accompanied by instructional material to resolve them. The difficulties experienced by these students indicate a significant discrepancy between their conceptions and the scientific view. To address these difficulties, the design and the development of two types of programs were chosen. The first is based on educational models in the laboratory and the second consists of auxiliary courses and educational material for its simultaneous use in classroom teachings. The conclusion is that the existing literature is confirmed and enriched with new findings, while a different teaching approach accompanied by appropriate educational material seems to help the address of the conceptual and reasoning difficulties.

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Research and Categorization of Conceptual Difficulties in Electricity’s Concepts and Basic Laws

Cited by 5 publications

References 10 publications

High School Students’ Difficulties and their Causes due to the Electromotive Force, in the Study of Direct Current Simple Electric Circuits

High School Students’ Difficulties and their Causes due to the Electromotive Force, in the Study of Direct Current Simple Electric Circuits

How Difficult are Simple Electrical Circuit Conceptions? New Findings

Research for a Teaching Approach: An Example of Addressing the High School Students’ Conceptual and Reasoning Difficulties in the Study of Direct Current Simple Electric Circuits

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