Societal Educational Debts Due to Racism and Sexism in Calculus-based Electricity and Magnetism Courses

An assessment is described in the introductory physics course for chemistry major students with the focus on solving problems from the electricity and magnetism. The experiences are summarised, obtained during the academic years 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 from a multiple-choice test passed by 390 chemistry majors at the Faculty of Science in Olomouc. Various kinds of quiz problems were used, which can be divided into three categories: conceptual questions, numerical questions, questions with chart reading and interpretation. In the study assessment data are summarised and the score difference, achieved in the mentioned problem categories, is identified. The results did not prove that conceptual problems were more difficult for the set of students, but it is suggested, that students are more successful in the whole test to reach better scores in graph reading questions. Keywords: chemistry majors, physics course, university students.

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Physics Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Electricity and Magnetism in Nine Years Basic Education in Rwanda

European Journal of Educational Research ◽

10.12973/eu-jer.11.1.83 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 83-101

Author(s):

Agnes Mbonyiryivuze

Keyword(s):

Electric Fields ◽

Basic Education ◽

Current Source ◽

Quantitative Information ◽

Electric Circuits ◽

Physics Students ◽

Current Consumption ◽

Electricity And Magnetism ◽

Continuous Current ◽

Multiple Choice Questionnaire

We investigate students’ misconceptions in electrostatics, direct current (DC) and magnetism which are important in electricity and magnetism. We developed and administered a multiple-choice questionnaire test to reveal students’ misconceptions related to charged bodies, lightning, electric fields, electric potential, forces, DC resistive electric circuits and magnets. This test aimed at obtaining quantitative information about misconceptions and was administered to 380 senior two students from Nine Year Basic Education (9YBE) Schools. The selected students have some experience with the new Rwandan secondary physics Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) that is currently under implementation. We find that senior two students have several common misconceptions related to these concepts. The data indicate that although students have some backgrounds on the subject matter, they still seem to believe that if the two charges are separated by a distance, a large-charged object exerts a greater force of attraction or repulsion on the small one. Considerable number of participated students held the misconception of considering current consumption in the resistor/bulb or the electrical devices in the circuits. They also believed that the battery was a continuous current source. The findings also revealed that students held a misconception that a bar magnet when broken into pieces, it is demagnetized. Moreover, a considerable number of participants hold the misconception that all metals are attracted by a magnet. Our study also revealed some of the statistically significant differences in terms of either gender or location of schools for some items.

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