Recognition and Conversion of Electric Field Representations: The Case of Electric Field Lines

Autor/inn/en	Campos, Esmeralda; Zuza, Kristina; Guisasola, Jenaro; Zavala, Genaro
Titel	Recognition and Conversion of Electric Field Representations: The Case of Electric Field Lines
Quelle	In: Physical Review Physics Education Research, 19 (2023) 2, Artikel 020117 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Campos, Esmeralda) ORCID (Zuza, Kristina) ORCID (Guisasola, Jenaro) ORCID (Zavala, Genaro)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Physics; Science Instruction; Energy; Scientific Concepts; College Science; College Students; Magnets; Foreign Countries; Concept Formation; Mexico + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Physik; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Energie; Collegestudent; Stabmagnet; Ausland; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung; Mexiko
Abstract	We conducted a study with introductory and upper-division physics students in a Mexican university to learn how students independently recognize the electric field's main characteristics in the electric field lines diagram and as a source or target representation in conversion processes. We used the theory of registers of semiotic representations and a phenomenographic approach as a framework to analyze data. The recognition and conversion abilities were explored through interpretation and construction tasks. We identified students' main difficulties in recognition and conversion in the interpretation and construction tasks. In conversion processes, we found that when the electric field lines diagram is the source representation, students do not interpret the field lines' density as the magnitude of the electric field. The difficulties of interpretation that arise in these conversion processes depend partially on the target representation. We also found that constructing electric field lines is especially difficult for students at both introductory and upper-division levels. Most students would prefer to draw vector field plots instead. We recommend that electricity and magnetism teachers and researchers be aware of the difficulties that the recognition and conversion in interpretation and construction tasks may represent for their students in understanding the electric field concept. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01