Secondary School Students’ Misconceptions about Simple Electric Circuits

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal secondary school students’ misconceptions about simple electric circuits and to define whether specific misconceptions peculiar to Turkish students exist within those identified. Data were obtained with a conceptual understanding test for simple electric circuits and semi-structured interviews. Conceptual understanding test consists of eight open-ended questions that were designed by reviewing the related studies in the literature. The most important findings appeared in the study were the misconceptions, which emphasized the idea of “no bulb lights on if the switch is off” due to everyday language and the idea of “bulbs connected in parallel give better light than those connected in series” due to prior teachings. In addition, misconceptions, those frequently reported in the literature such as “the consumption of current”, “batteries are constant current sources”, etc. were also suggested in this study.