0000000000139965
AUTHOR
Carlos Furió
Learning the electric field concept as oriented research activity
This work is grounded in a constructivistic conception of the learning of science, more particularly on the model known as teaching–learning as oriented research. In accordance with this theoretical basis we have developed an empirical research project to investigate the teaching of electrostatics in high schools. The designs developed have enabled us to assess the learning achieved by the students from conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal stances. According to our findings we can say that the materials developed and the way we have worked with them have contributed to more significant learning and favored a more positive attitude toward the subject. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed…
THE LEARNING AND TEACHING OF THE CONCEPTS AMOUNT OF SUBSTANCE AND MOLE: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
The importance of the concepts of ’amount of substance’ and ’mole’ is supported by the abundance in the last decade of research papers on the problem of the teaching and learning of these concepts. The present study attempts a review of the relevant bibliography, including recent investigations on both the difficulties of learning these concepts and the didactic alternatives that are provided from different perspectives. The literature reviewed shows that students have great difficulty in handling the above concepts. In addition, a clear discrepancy exists between what is assumed as correct by the scientific community and the thinking of educators. Finally, strategies for the teaching of th…
Difficulties in learning the concept of electric field
This article analyzes students' main difficulties in learning the concept of the electric field. To carry out this analysis we have supposed that the historical study of the main qualitative leaps that have taken place in the construction of the theory of field may help to diagnose such difficulties. Thus, we have made a brief description of the main conceptual profiles within which electric interactions can be interpreted (Coulombian and Maxwellian) and examined to what extent they are used by students in sixth form and in university. To achieve this we have devised and applied an open question questionnaire and personal. The results obtained showed that most students, even university stud…
Elementary electrostatic phenomena: Historical hindrances and students’ difficulties1
Abstract Categories of explanation for electrostatic phenomena derived from a brief historical survey are used to interpret the responses of students aged 17 to 21 to questionnaire items describing five experimental situations. Most of the students’ interpretations of electrostatic phenomena used ideas about the electric nature of matter that recalled pre‐Newtonian explanations.
Functional fixedness and functional reduction as common sense reasonings in chemical equilibrium and in geometry and polarity of molecules
Many of the learning difficulties in the specific domain of chemistry are found not only in the ideas already possessed by students but in the strategic and procedural knowledge that is characteristic of everyday thinking. These defects in procedural knowledge have been described as functional fixedness and functional reduction. This article assesses the procedural difficulties of students (grade 12 and first and third year of university) based on common sense reasoning in two areas of chemistry: chemical equilibrium and geometry and polarity of molecules. In the first area, the theme of external factors affecting equilibria (temperature and concentration change) was selected because the ex…
Dificultades conceptuales y epistemológicas en el aprendizaje de los procesos químicos
<span>La línea de investigación sobre las concepciones alternativas de los estudiantes en temas de Ciencia ha sido, desde hace más de 20 años, el eje medular del cuerpo teórico de conocimientos que hoy llamamos Didáctica de las Ciencias. Se dispone de mucha información sobre las ideas, preconcepciones o concepciones alternativas como puede apreciarse en la literatura didáctica. Y aunque, como indica Duit (1993), el dominio en el que más se ha investigado es en el de la Física, también hay un 18% de los más de 3,000 artículos referenciados por aquellos autores a los que podemos acudir en el campo de la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la Química (Furió, 1996).</span>