ERIC Number: EJ1192597
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Aug
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-9359
EISSN: N/A
Exploring Undergraduate Students' Computational Modeling Abilities and Conceptual Understanding of Electric Circuits
Ortega-Alvarez, Juan D.; Sanchez, William; Magana, Alejandra J.
IEEE Transactions on Education, v61 n3 p204-213 Aug 2018
Contribution: This paper adds to existing literature on teaching basic concepts of electricity using computer-based instruction; findings suggest that students can develop an accurate understanding of electric circuits when they generate multiple and complementary representations that build toward computational models. Background: Several studies have explored the efficacy of computer-based, multi-representational teaching of electric circuits for novice learners. Existing research has found that instructional use of computational models that move from abstract to concrete representations can foster students' comprehension of electric circuit concepts, but other features of effective instruction using computational models need further investigation. Research Questions: 1) Is there a correlation between students' representational fluency and their ability to reason qualitatively on electric circuits? and 2) Is the quality of student-generated computational representations correlated to their conceptual understanding of electric circuits? Methodology: The study comprised two cases in which 51 sophomore-engineering students completed a voluntary assignment designed to assess their representational fluency and conceptual understanding of electric circuits. Qualitative insights from the first case informed the design of a scoring rubric that served as both the assessment and the data collection instrument. Findings: The results suggest that a multi-representational approach aimed at the construction of computational models can foster conceptual understanding of electric circuits. The number and quality of students' representations showed a positive correlation with their conceptual understanding. In particular, the quality of the computational representations was found to be highly, and significantly, correlated with the correctness of students' answers to qualitative reasoning questions.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Computation, Concept Formation, Equipment, Electronics, Energy, Computer Assisted Instruction, Logical Thinking, Engineering Education, Comprehension, Models, Visual Aids
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Tel: 732-981-0060; Web site: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=13
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A