Case study of the understanding that graduate and advanced students in physics have about potential difference and EMF
Keywords:
potential difference, emf, ontologyAbstract
A case study on the ideas that two advanced physics students and two graduate students have about the potential difference and emf concepts is presented. This study is carried out through clinical interviews specially designed to elicit the ontological characteristics of their conceptions. The importance of this analysis is rooted in previous works that have signaled the problems that an incorrect ontological characterization can carry in learning science concepts. The conceptual frame used for this analysis is the one presented by Chi (1992) and the methodology adjusts to the case study that is described in Merriam (1998). This analysis might throw some light on possible teaching strategies that can be designed to bridge the gap between scientific and spontaneous ideas produced by the incorrect ontolo gical categorization of concepts.References
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