The goal of this study is to identify students' difficulties with learning the concepts of electromotive force (emf) and potential difference in the context of transitory currents and resistive direct-current circuits. To investigate these difficulties, we developed a questionnaire based on an analysis of the theoretical and epistemological framework of physics, which was then administered to first-year engineering and physics students at universities in Spain, Colombia, and Belgium. The results of the study show that student difficulties seem to be strongly linked to the absence of an analysis of the energy balance within the circuit and that most university students do not clearly understand the usefulness of and the difference between the concepts of potential difference and emf.
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January 2014
January 01 2014
Probing university students' understanding of electromotive force in electricity
Isabel Garzón;
Isabel Garzón
Department of Physics, National Pedagogical University
, Bogota, Colombia
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Mieke De Cock;
Mieke De Cock
Department of Physics and Astronomy & LESEC, University of Leuven- KU Leuven
, Leuven 300, Belgium
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Kristina Zuza;
Kristina Zuza
Department of Applied Physics, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU)
, San Sebastian 20018, Spain
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Paul van Kampen;
Paul van Kampen
Centre for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Teaching and Learning & School of Physical Sciences, Dublin City University (DCU)
, Dublin 9, Ireland
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Jenaro Guisasola
Jenaro Guisasola
Department of Applied Physics, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU)
, San Sebastian 20018, Spain
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Am. J. Phys. 82, 72–79 (2014)
Article history
Received:
February 25 2013
Accepted:
November 12 2013
Citation
Isabel Garzón, Mieke De Cock, Kristina Zuza, Paul van Kampen, Jenaro Guisasola; Probing university students' understanding of electromotive force in electricity. Am. J. Phys. 1 January 2014; 82 (1): 72–79. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4833637
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