Abstract
Despite extensive research, our understanding of the teaching and learning of direct current (DC) electricity remains poor. As part of a larger project focused on learning outcomes and analogies/models/metaphors appropriate at different levels of electricity learning, in this study we investigated the detailed forms of explanations and analogies/models/metaphors used in senior high school textbooks in Victoria, Australia, and the understandings of the writers of these textbooks. All 3 authors had inadequate understandings of models and analogies, there was great variation in author understanding of voltage (with one author having clearly inadequate understanding), and the approaches authors used in their books reflected these inadequacies. We suggest that this serious issue is not specific to the state of Victoria.
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Gunstone, R., Mckittrick, B., Mulhall, P. (2005). Textbooks and Their Authors: Another Perspective on the Difficulties of Teaching and Learning Electricity. In: Boersma, K., Goedhart, M., de Jong, O., Eijkelhof, H. (eds) Research and the Quality of Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3673-6_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3673-6_34
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