Kristina Zuza

The design and evaluation of an instructional sequence on Ampere’s law

This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an instructional sequence intended to improve student understanding of Ampere’s law among engineering students taking introductory physics. Participating students performed better on qualitative and quantitative test questions about Ampere’s law than students in a similar class that devoted the same amount of time to the topic but followed traditional instruction. The results suggest that the strategy employed in the sequence can help students to apply and explain the relation between electrical currents and magnetic fields.

Estimate of students' workload and the impact of the evaluation system on students' dedication to studying a subject in first-year engineering courses

In order to adapt current subjects to the ECTS credits system, it is necessary to estimate how much time a student has to invest in learning a subject. The Polytechnic Engineering School of the University of the Basque Country has made an initial study to investigate this matter in several subjects. A weekly questionnaire design was used for all the students in the class, supplemented, when necessary, by an individual interview, with student collaboration. The results indicate that the study rhythm and the number of hours are strongly conditioned by the evaluation system.

Dificultades de los estudiantes universitarios en el aprendizaje de la inducción electromagnética

The work presented deals with the ideas of first-year Engineering students and third year Physics students about the theory of electromagnetic induction (EI). In this investigation we analyse that part of the theory of EI relating to Faradays law which comes within the basic analysis of induction phenomena for introductory physics courses within classical physics. In this work, the following research question arise: what conceptions and forms of reasoning do university science and engineering students use in explanations of electromagnetic induction phenomena? We found that very few students are able to distinguish between macroscopic levels described in terms of fields and microscopic levels described in terms of the actions of fields.

Ideas de los estudiantes universitarios sobre las relaciones trabajo y energía en Mecánica en cursos introductorios de Física

1Instituto de Maquina Herramienta IMH Elgoibar, Elgoibar, Spain 2Universidad del Páıs Vasco, Escuela de Ingenieŕıa de Gipuzkoa San Sebastian, Spain 3Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingenieria y Ciencias, Monterrey, Mexico 4Universidad Andres Bello, Facultad de Ingenieria, Santiago, Chile 5Universidad del Pais Vasco, Escuela Universitaria Politecnica de San Sebastian, Plaza Europa 1, Donostia, Spain

Content-Focused Research for Innovation in Teaching/Learning Electromagnetism: Approaches from GIREP Community

This paper summarises research presented in the symposium organised by the Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignment de la Physique (GIREP) on content-focused research and research-based instruction. A specific topic area, electromagnetism, was chosen to provide focus and continuity. The interpretative ideas developed by physicists to account for electromagnetic phenomena and the mathematical formalism used to represent these ideas make the subject ideal for exploring issues in learning and teaching that include the impact of students’ prior real-world experiences, their understanding of the nature of the interpretative process and their ability to relate formalism to phenomena. Electromagnetism also offers the opportunity to explore the relationships between macroscopic and microscopic models, as well as the ‘field’ concept. Thus the research findings presented have implications that go beyond the nominal content of electricity and magnetism. The symposium addressed learning among primary, secondary and university students pursuing careers as engineers or scientists and pre-service teachers. The themes include the study of conceptual knots related to the content, the implications for teacher training and the persistence of difficulties at the university level. Instructional approaches motivated by research findings were discussed. Researchers from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States presented results from their own investigations. As shown in this paper, the perspectives vary with regard to research questions, methods, interpretative frameworks and the role of specific research findings in driving educational innovation.

Exercises are problems too: implications for teaching problem-solving in introductory physics courses

Frequently, in university-level general physics courses, after explaining the theory, exercises are set based on examples that illustrate the application of concepts and laws. Traditionally formulated numerical exercises are usually solved by the teacher and students through direct replacement of data in formulae. It is our contention that such strategies can lead to the superficial and erroneous resolution of such exercises. In this paper, we provide an example that illustrates that students tend to solve problems in a superficial manner, without applying fundamental problem-solving strategies such as qualitative analysis, hypothesis-forming and analysis of results, which prevents them from arriving at a correct solution. We provide evidence of the complexity of an a priori simple exercise in physics, although the theory involved may seem elementary at first sight. Our aim is to stimulate reflection among instructors to follow these results when using examples and solving exercises with students.

Resolver ejercicios no es fácil. El papel de la metodología científica en la resolución de problemas de física

Frecuentemente en los cursos de fisica general en la Universidad los problemas se resuelven como aplicacion directa de la teoria, como si fueran ejercicios. En este articulo se muestran evidencias de que los estudiantes tienden a resolver ejercicios y problemas de manera superficial, sin aplicar estrategias de resolucion fundamentales como el analisis cualitativo o la emision de hipotesis, que impiden llegar a una solucion correcta. Utilizando como referencia la resolucion de un problema que suele ser considerado como ejercicio, se proponen algunas lineas de actuacion que pueden guiar la resolucion de problemas en la ensenanza de la fisica, y estimular en los estudiantes la reflexion para encontrar soluciones, asi como la utilizacion de procedimientos cientificos.

Investigating physics teaching and learning in a university setting

Most of the initiatives taken by the European Community and by other countries internationally in the field of science education focus on elementary a