Identifying common conceptions in electricity amongst secondary school students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to try to identify the common conceptions amongst Maltese secondary students about the topic ‘Electricity’. This was done by administering a questionnaire to 301 students from seven schools from all sectors (private, church, and state) across Malta. The questionnaire focussed on students’ conceptual understanding of the concepts of charge, current, voltage, resistance and on their interpretation of pictorial and schematic diagrams. In addition, ten teachers from the chosen schools were interviewed about students’ conceptions of ‘electricity’ based on their teaching experience, and about the teaching strategies which they use. A quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted once all the questionnaires and interviews were completed. The data generated showed that students developed their own conceptions in different concepts of ‘Electricity’ which do not comply with the established scientific explanations. Furthermore, students also seem to find it difficult to explain the concepts of ‘Electricity’ qualitatively, hence they take a quantitative approach when analysing a circuit. From this study it was also concluded that a common factor for these conceptions can be attributed to the lack of hands-on practice students experience when learning this subject.