@inproceedings{7aa60300aa50444491dc99ac2d75d89d,
title = "Contrasting students' understanding of electric field and electric force",
abstract = "Students may have greater difficulties in understanding electric interactions because they have less day to day experience with them than with mechanics. There may also be differences in understanding of different electric concepts like electric force and field. This study presents the results of students' responses to two sequences of superposition principle isomorphic questions in which the only difference was that in one of the sequences, the electric force was used and in the other, the electric field. We administered one of the sequences to 249 students at a large private Mexican university after covering electrostatics in an Electricity and Magnetism class. The students' answers, reasoning and drawings were analyzed. We found that students who took the force sequence were better able to correctly answer the questions using the superposition principle than those students with the field sequence. The analysis of the students' reasoning and drawings helped us to examine their understanding of electric field and the use of electric field lines.",
keywords = "Electric field, Electric force, Physics Education",
author = "Alejandro Garza and Genaro Zavala",
note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the support received from Tecnologico de Monterrey through grant number CAT140. The authors also acknowledge Esmeralda Campos for all her discussion/contribution to this research.; 2012 Physics Education Research Conference, PERC 2012 ; Conference date: 01-08-2012 Through 02-08-2012",
year = "2013",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1063/1.4789672",
language = "English",
volume = "1513",
series = "AIP Conference Proceedings",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Inc.",
pages = "142--145",
editor = "Rebello, {N. Sanjay} and Engelhardt, {Paula V.} and Churukian, {Alice D.}",
booktitle = "2012 Physics Education Research Conference",
}