First-year university students’ conceptual understanding of electric circuits in relation to school and personal background

Q3 Social Sciences

Perspectives in Education Pub Date : 2022-01-01 DOI:10.38140/pie.v40i4.6573

Moreen Coetzee, Coréne Coetzee, E. Gaigher

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Abstract

This paper reports a quantitative study about university students’ conceptual understanding of simple DC-circuits when entering firstyear physics at a South African university. The aim was to investigate how conceptual understanding relates to the students’ personal and school background. The conceptual framework was based on an existing model of the effectiveness of science education. Data were collected from 815 participants at a South African university. The conceptual understanding of DC circuits was measured in terms of performance in the well-known Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric Circuits Concepts Test (DIRECT). Background information at school, classroom, and personal level was obtained with a questionnaire. Using Rash analysis, it was found that the students’ conceptual understanding relates significantly to the type of school attended, home language, previous achievement, their attitudes towards physics, and gender. However, contrary to expectations, the students’ conceptual understanding did not show a relationship with their exposure to practical work at school.

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大学一年级学生对电路概念的理解与学校和个人背景有关

本文报道了一项关于南非一所大学一年级物理新生对简单直流电路概念理解的定量研究。目的是调查概念理解如何与学生的个人和学校背景相关。概念框架是基于现有的科学教育有效性模型。数据收集自南非一所大学的815名参与者。直流电路的概念理解是根据著名的确定和解释电阻电路概念测试(DIRECT)的性能来衡量的。通过问卷调查获得学校、课堂和个人层面的背景信息。运用拉什分析发现，学生的概念理解与学校类型、家庭语言、以前的成绩、对物理的态度和性别显著相关。然而，与预期相反，学生的概念理解与他们在学校接触的实际工作没有关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Perspectives in Education Social Sciences-Education

CiteScore

1.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Perspectives in Education is a professional, refereed journal, which encourages submission of previously unpublished articles on contemporary educational issues. As a journal that represents a variety of cross-disciplinary interests, both theoretical and practical, it seeks to stimulate debates on a wide range of topics. PIE invites manuscripts employing innovative qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches including (but not limited to) ethnographic observation and interviewing, grounded theory, life history, case study, curriculum analysis and critique, policy studies, ethnomethodology, social and educational critique, phenomenology, deconstruction, and genealogy. Debates on epistemology, methodology, or ethics, from a range of perspectives including postpositivism, interpretivism, constructivism, critical theory, feminism, post-modernism are also invited. PIE seeks to stimulate important dialogues and intellectual exchange on education and democratic transition with respect to schools, colleges, non-governmental organisations, universities and technikons in South Africa and beyond.