Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations

We conducted a study with introductory and upper-division level physics students in a Mexican and a Spanish university to learn how students recognize the main characteristics of the electric field in three of its more widely used representations, namely, algebraic notation, vector field plot, and e...

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Autores principales:	Esmeralda Campos, Genaro Zavala, Kristina Zuza, Jenaro Guisasola
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2020
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/361a448c64d94ac988bad8462ef6c31f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:361a448c64d94ac988bad8462ef6c31f2021-12-02T12:00:33ZStudents’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.0101352469-9896https://doaj.org/article/361a448c64d94ac988bad8462ef6c31f2020-06-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010135http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010135https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896We conducted a study with introductory and upper-division level physics students in a Mexican and a Spanish university to learn how students recognize the main characteristics of the electric field in three of its more widely used representations, namely, algebraic notation, vector field plot, and electric field lines, and how the students do conversions of them. The students’ abilities to recognize the three representations of the electric field and do conversions gave insight into their understanding of this concept. We used the theory of registers of semiotic representations as a framework to analyze the data. Our results showed that the direction of the conversion is an essential factor in determining the students’ success in performing conversions of electrical field representations. We found close synergy between the vector field plot and the algebraic notation of the electric field. However, we found that the conversions that involve electric field lines do not present synergy. The electric field lines representation is especially difficult for students, both as a source and as a target representation, specifically, the interpretation and representation of the magnitude of the field through the density of field lines. We recommend that teachers and researchers of electricity and magnetism be more conscious of the difficulties that some conversion tasks may present to their students. We specifically invite instructors to be attentive to how they approach the representation of electric field lines and be explicit when performing conversions that involve electric field lines.Esmeralda CamposGenaro ZavalaKristina ZuzaJenaro GuisasolaAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 16, Iss 1, p 010135 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Esmeralda Campos Genaro Zavala Kristina Zuza Jenaro Guisasola Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
description	We conducted a study with introductory and upper-division level physics students in a Mexican and a Spanish university to learn how students recognize the main characteristics of the electric field in three of its more widely used representations, namely, algebraic notation, vector field plot, and electric field lines, and how the students do conversions of them. The students’ abilities to recognize the three representations of the electric field and do conversions gave insight into their understanding of this concept. We used the theory of registers of semiotic representations as a framework to analyze the data. Our results showed that the direction of the conversion is an essential factor in determining the students’ success in performing conversions of electrical field representations. We found close synergy between the vector field plot and the algebraic notation of the electric field. However, we found that the conversions that involve electric field lines do not present synergy. The electric field lines representation is especially difficult for students, both as a source and as a target representation, specifically, the interpretation and representation of the magnitude of the field through the density of field lines. We recommend that teachers and researchers of electricity and magnetism be more conscious of the difficulties that some conversion tasks may present to their students. We specifically invite instructors to be attentive to how they approach the representation of electric field lines and be explicit when performing conversions that involve electric field lines.
format	article
author	Esmeralda Campos Genaro Zavala Kristina Zuza Jenaro Guisasola
author_facet	Esmeralda Campos Genaro Zavala Kristina Zuza Jenaro Guisasola
author_sort	Esmeralda Campos
title	Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
title_short	Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
title_full	Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
title_fullStr	Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
title_full_unstemmed	Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
title_sort	students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/361a448c64d94ac988bad8462ef6c31f
work_keys_str_mv	AT esmeraldacampos studentsunderstandingoftheconceptoftheelectricfieldthroughconversionsofmultiplerepresentations AT genarozavala studentsunderstandingoftheconceptoftheelectricfieldthroughconversionsofmultiplerepresentations AT kristinazuza studentsunderstandingoftheconceptoftheelectricfieldthroughconversionsofmultiplerepresentations AT jenaroguisasola studentsunderstandingoftheconceptoftheelectricfieldthroughconversionsofmultiplerepresentations
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Students’ understanding of the concept of the electric field through conversions of multiple representations

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