Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators

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written by Joshua Bilak and Chandralekha Singh

We examine the difficulties that introductory physics students, undergraduate physics majors, and physics graduate students have with concepts related to conductors and insulators covered in introductory physics by giving written tests and interviewing a subset of students. We find that even graduate students have serious difficulties with these concepts. We develop tutorials related to these topics and evaluate their effectiveness by comparing the performance on written pre-/post-tests and interviews of students who received traditional instruction vs. those who learned using tutorials.

Physics Education Research Conference 2007
Part of the PER Conference series
Greensboro, NC: August 1-2, 2007
Volume 951, Pages 49-52

download 108kb .pdf
Published: November 12, 2007

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education Foundations - Alternative Conceptions - Assessment = Instruments - Cognition Education Practices - Pedagogy Electricity & Magnetism - Electrostatics = Conductors and Insulators	- Lower Undergraduate - Graduate/Professional - Upper Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Research study

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Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2820944
Access Rights:: Limited free access and
Available by subscription and
Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2007 2007 American Institute of Physics.
DOI:: 10.1063/1.2820944
NSF Number:: 0442087
PACSs:: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.gb; 84.32.Ff; 85.50.-n
Keywords:: PERC 2007, conceptual understanding, conductors (electric), insulators, physics, teaching, tutorial development
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created June 3, 2009 by Jenny Rempel
Record Updated:: July 16, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: November 12, 2007
Other Collections:: The PER-Central

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<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=9045">Bilak, Joshua, and Chandralekha Singh. "Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, August 1-2, 2007.</a>

AIP Format

J. Bilak and C. Singh, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, 2007, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975).

AJP/PRST-PER

J. Bilak and C. Singh, Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, 2007, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975>.

APA Format

Bilak, J., & Singh, C. (2007, August 1-2). Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC. Retrieved May 1, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975

Chicago Format

Bilak, Joshua, and Chandralekha Singh. "Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, August 1-2, 2007. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975 (accessed 1 May 2025).

MLA Format

Bilak, Joshua, and Chandralekha Singh. "Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators." Physics Education Research Conference 2007. Greensboro, NC: 2007. 49-52 Vol. 951 of PER Conference. 1 May 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Joshua Bilak and Chandralekha Singh", Title = {Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2007}, Pages = {49-52}, Address = {Greensboro, NC}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {951}, Month = {August 1-2}, Year = {2007} }

Refer Export Format

%A Joshua Bilak %A Chandralekha Singh %T Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators %S PER Conference %V 951 %D August 1-2 2007 %P 49-52 %C Greensboro, NC %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2007 %O August 1-2 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Bilak, Joshua %A Singh, Chandralekha %D August 1-2 2007 %T Improving Students' Conceptual Understanding of Conductors and Insulators %B Physics Education Research Conference 2007 %C Greensboro, NC %V 951 %P 49-52 %S PER Conference %8 August 1-2 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9045&DocID=1975

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