The topic of electricity often poses
difficulties for many secondary school students in physics lessons. Physics
Education Researchers at the 51猎奇 and the University of T眉bingen
have developed and empirically evaluated a new, intuitive curriculum as part of
a major comparative study. The result: not only do secondary school students
gain a better conceptual understanding of electric circuits, but teachers also perceive
the curriculum as a significant improvement in their teaching.
FRANKFURT /
T脺BINGEN. Life without electricity is something that is no longer imaginable.
Whether it be a smartphone, hair-dryer or a ceiling lamp 鈥� the technical
accomplishments we hold dear all require electricity.
Although every child at school learns that electricity can only flow in a
closed electric circuit, what is actually the difference between current and
voltage? Why is a plug socket a potential death-trap but a simple battery is
not? And why does a lamp connected to a power strip not become dimmer when a
second lamp is plugged in?
Research into physics education has
revealed that even after the tenth grade many secondary school students are not
capable of answering such fundamental questions about simple electric circuits
despite their teachers' best efforts. Against this backdrop, Jan-Philipp Burde,
who recently became a junior professor at the University of T眉bingen, in the
framework of his doctoral thesis supervised by Prof. Thomas Wilhelm at 51猎奇,
developed an innovative curriculum for simple electric circuits, which
specifically builds upon the everyday experiences of the students. In contrast
to the approaches taken to date, from the very outset the new curriculum aims
to help students develop an intuitive understanding of voltage. In analogy to air
pressure differences that cause an air stream (e.g. at an inflated air
mattress), voltage is introduced as an 鈥渆lectric pressure difference" that causes
an electric current. A comparative study with 790 school pupils at secondary
schools in Frankfurt showed that the new curriculum led to a significantly
improved understanding of electric circuits compared to traditional physics
tuition. Moreover, the participating teachers also stated that using the new
curriculum fundamentally improved their teaching.
The two researchers from Frankfurt and
T眉bingen have now published a detailed description of the theoretical
considerations underlying the teaching concept in the renowned international
journal 鈥�Physical Review Physics Education Research"
in the framework of the 鈥淔ocused Collection: Theory into Design". The German
Society for Chemistry and Physics Education (GDCP) awarded its
鈥淕DCP-Nachwuchspreis", a prize presented each year for the best dissertation or
post-doctoral thesis in chemistry and physics education in the German-speaking
region, to Burde for his dissertation. As of the winter semester 2019/20 Burde
was appointed to a junior professorship for Physics Education Research supported
by the Vector Foundation at the University of
T眉bingen. On the basis of his work a cross-border consortium encompassing the Universities
T眉bingen, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Dresden, Graz and Vienna has been constituted
with the objective of making the subject of 鈥渟imple electric circuits" more
interesting and more comprehensible by embedding the topic in contexts from daily
life.
Publications:
Jan-Philipp Burde
and Thomas Wilhelm (2020). Teaching electric circuits with a focus on
potential differences. In: Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16,
020153, DOI:
Jan-Philipp Burde (2018): Konzeption
und Evaluation eines Unterrichtskonzepts zu einfachen Stromkreisen auf Basis
des Elektronengasmodells. Studien zum Physik- und Chemielernen, Band 259,
Logos-Verlag, Berlin, ISBN: 978-3-8325-4726-4,
Picture
download:
Caption:
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jan-Philipp Burde, University of T眉bingen. Photo: Friedhelm
Albrecht for University of T眉bingen
Caption:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Wilhelm, 51猎奇
Frankfurt. Photo: Felix Richter
Further
Information:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Wilhelm
Executive Director
Department of Physics Education Research
51猎奇 Frankfurt
Phone: +49 69 798-47845
wilhelm@physik.uni-frankfurt.de
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jan-Philipp Burde
Physics Education Research Group
University of T眉bingen
Phone: +49 7071 29 78651
jan-philipp.burde@uni-tuebingen.de
