Physics makes use of analogies to explain new phenomena using our understanding of more familiar phenomena. This thesis studies how pairs of university students reason when they encounter problems in physics that require explicit analogical reasoning. I have video recorded three pairs of students engaged in an analogical reasoning task on the topic of electric circuits. The students were asked to provide explanations of the functioning of electric circuits that a non-physicist could understand. The students were encouraged to use analogies in the process. This resulted in students proposing analogies for basic electric circuit elements, such as a conducting wire, resistor, capacitor and inductor, using a so-called hydraulic analogy (water flowing in pipes). In the thesis, I explore how the students translate an electronic problem into a hydraulic problem. Qualitative methods of analysis were applied for data collection, and interpretation. While broad generalizations about how students reason in general cannot be made solely on the findings of this thesis, the findings of this thesis show that proposing concrete mechanical analogies for electric circuits alone may not necessarily help students reason conceptually in productive ways. In one case, I find that the students use of formal and more abstract ideas allows them to more effectively move between the electrical and hydraulic domains. One implication for teaching when making explicit analogical links between the two domains addressed in this thesis is that it is the disciplinary relevant aspects of the domains that needs to be linked and rather than surface features or other disciplinary aspects of the objects. Here, the disciplinary relevant aspect is energy, and in completing the task students focus on this aspect of electric circuits energy perspective that they had potentially not noticed before. When students link two domains it is not necessary that potential energy for instance in domain A corresponds to potential energy in domain B. It is recommended that the teachers emphasize the limitations of such analogical reasoning. Transduction help students to discuss and analyze concepts of different systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-385584 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Ringstam, Andreas |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Fysikundervisningens didaktik, Uppsala Universitet |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | FYSAST ; FYSPROJ1125 |
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