Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] Developing a solid understanding of simple electric circuits represents a major challenge to most students in middle school. In particular, students tend to reason exclusively with current and resistance wh...

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Autores principales:	Jan-Philipp Burde, Thomas Wilhelm
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/425c28904f7f46b1b0591736a3255a04
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:425c28904f7f46b1b0591736a3255a042021-12-02T14:23:35ZTeaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.0201532469-9896https://doaj.org/article/425c28904f7f46b1b0591736a3255a042020-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.020153http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.020153https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] Developing a solid understanding of simple electric circuits represents a major challenge to most students in middle school. In particular, students tend to reason exclusively with current and resistance when analyzing electric circuits as they view voltage as a property of the electric current and not an independent physical quantity. As a result, they often struggle to understand the important relationship between voltage and current in electric circuits. Following diSessa’s interpretation of learning as the construction and reorganization of previously loosely connected elements of knowledge (“p-prims”) into a coherent mental structure (“coordination class”), a new curriculum was developed that systematically builds on students’ everyday experiences with air pressure (e.g., with air mattresses and bicycle tires). In order to make voltage rather than current the students’ primary concept when analyzing electric circuits, voltage is introduced as an “electric pressure difference” across a resistor that is as much the cause for an electric current as air pressure differences are the cause for air flow. The objective of the curriculum is to provide a structure for students to develop a qualitative understanding of simple dc circuits that allows them to make intuitive inferences about the electric current based on voltage and resistance. With an effect size of d=0.94 the new curriculum has proven to be more effective than traditional approaches for teaching electric circuits in a quasi-experimental field study with 790 students from Frankfurt am Main, Germany.Jan-Philipp BurdeThomas WilhelmAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 16, Iss 2, p 020153 (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 Jan-Philipp Burde Thomas Wilhelm Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
description	[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] Developing a solid understanding of simple electric circuits represents a major challenge to most students in middle school. In particular, students tend to reason exclusively with current and resistance when analyzing electric circuits as they view voltage as a property of the electric current and not an independent physical quantity. As a result, they often struggle to understand the important relationship between voltage and current in electric circuits. Following diSessa’s interpretation of learning as the construction and reorganization of previously loosely connected elements of knowledge (“p-prims”) into a coherent mental structure (“coordination class”), a new curriculum was developed that systematically builds on students’ everyday experiences with air pressure (e.g., with air mattresses and bicycle tires). In order to make voltage rather than current the students’ primary concept when analyzing electric circuits, voltage is introduced as an “electric pressure difference” across a resistor that is as much the cause for an electric current as air pressure differences are the cause for air flow. The objective of the curriculum is to provide a structure for students to develop a qualitative understanding of simple dc circuits that allows them to make intuitive inferences about the electric current based on voltage and resistance. With an effect size of d=0.94 the new curriculum has proven to be more effective than traditional approaches for teaching electric circuits in a quasi-experimental field study with 790 students from Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
format	article
author	Jan-Philipp Burde Thomas Wilhelm
author_facet	Jan-Philipp Burde Thomas Wilhelm
author_sort	Jan-Philipp Burde
title	Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
title_short	Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
title_full	Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
title_fullStr	Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
title_full_unstemmed	Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
title_sort	teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/425c28904f7f46b1b0591736a3255a04
work_keys_str_mv	AT janphilippburde teachingelectriccircuitswithafocusonpotentialdifferences AT thomaswilhelm teachingelectriccircuitswithafocusonpotentialdifferences
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Teaching electric circuits with a focus on potential differences

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