A Study of University Students' Understanding of Simple Electric Circuits Part 1: Current in d.c. Circuits

SUMMARY RIASSUNTO A written questionnaire was submitted to two samples of sophomore students mainly from the Faculty of Engineering at Ban University (Southern Italy). The eight problems proposed in the questionnaire concerned the functioning of simple d.c. circuits. Analysis of the results shows the presence of a common misunderstanding (sequential reasoning) based on a ‘local’ interpretation of the current flow (i.e. the current value at a...