Student understanding of open switches and open circuits: What do we (not) know?

Publikationstyp
Conference Paper
Date Issued
2015-07
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Timmermann, Dion  orcid-logo
Kautz, Christian  
Institut
Abteilung für Fachdidaktik der Ingenieurwissenschaften Z-1  
TORE-URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11420/7131
Citation
Research in Engineering Education Symposium: Translating Research into Practice, REES: (2015-07)
Contribution to Conference
6th Research in Engineering Education Symposium, REES 2015  
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84962727597
We investigate student understanding of the voltage across an open switch. We will present and compare questions and data from literature and identify four possible misconceptions about open switches. Across many different populations with students from different countries, we find that 54 % of students incorrectly think that the voltage across an open switch is zero. While this number of incorrect answers is quite consistent across all studies, not much is known about the student misconceptions that cause it. Consequently, further research into these misconceptions is required to help teachers design suitable instruction.