Common Misunderstandings of Electricity: Analysis of Interview- Responses of Electrical Engineering Technology Students

Authors

  • Tatiana V. Goris Purdue University , USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v6i1.5146

Keywords:

misconceptions about electricity, student learning

Abstract


In the recent decade the wide body of research on misconceptions focused on establishing understandable schemes of why some scientific concepts are so difficult to understand for students in various Engineering Technology majors. The present interview-based, qualitative study of two student groups opened some interesting insides and explains common struggling of learning the basic electrical concepts. It had been observed that progressing from a freshman to a senior level, students developed strong technical/terminological vocabulary, but often they were unable to clear explain what those terms mean. Both student cohorts (from freshmen to seniors) continuously applied incorrect “water-analogy” to the concepts of current flow. Also, in majority of cases, they perceive electricity ontologically incorrect as a “Substance-that-can-be-used-up”.

Author Biography

Tatiana V. Goris, Purdue University , USA

Tatiana V. Goris is a Clinical Assistant Professor at School of Engineering Technology at Purdue University , Indiana, USA. She is teaching various disciplines in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Technology. Dr. Goris obtained her PhD at Purdue University in 2012 . She also holds MS in Electronics Engineering from Taganrog Institute of Technology (Russia).

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Published

2016-02-22

How to Cite

Goris, T. V. (2016). Common Misunderstandings of Electricity: Analysis of Interview- Responses of Electrical Engineering Technology Students. International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 6(1), pp. 4–10. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijep.v6i1.5146

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Papers