A study of science‐in‐the‐making as students generate an analogy for electricity

For many students, scientists’ ideas on electric circuits are not easy to understand. In part this is because students already have ideas on circuits which are contrary to those of scientists, for many students regard resistors as consumers of charge rather than as hindrances to its flow. This notion of consumption is present in the ideas people use successfully to explain many events of their everyday lives. In order to help students to approach the scientists’ view, that electric current is conserved, ways of reducing the impact of the notion of consumption were sought.

In the case study reported here, students first identified their diverse views on electric current, and then they designed and carried out a critical test to discriminate amongst those views. The outcome of that test, that the current is conserved, was not well received. Analogical exploration was attempted to reduce the discord. A student‐generated analogy of a vehicle and a load was developed and applied first to the test circuit and then to two further circuits known to challenge students’ ideas about electric current. In developing this analogy, students created a two‐part model differentiating charge from the agent causing it to move. The model provided a transitional framework for students who wished to move from a consumption model to a hindrance model for electrical resistance. In the process of analogy generation and development, the students experienced science‐in‐the‐making; they proposed theories to explain an event, they discriminated amongst competing theories through a critical experiment, they explored the ramifications of the indicated theory, and they gradually gained confidence in it through its increasing applicability.