Investigation of pre-service teacher’s understanding of Ohm’s law

Abstract

The incomplete understanding of Ohm’s law is a phenomenon widely experienced in introductory physics courses and high school science. Nonetheless, lecturers and teachers may be unaware of student’s inability to distinguish between the definition of resistance and Ohm’s law describing constant resistance. Our study explores the development of understanding of Ohm’s law amongst twenty four undergraduate students training to teach science in primary and junior secondary schools.

Our research found that some students demonstrated an inability to consider a circuit as a system. Furthermore, when the context was changed understanding was often lost. This could indicate operation on low cognitive levels which has serious implications for our future classrooms, not only regarding Ohm’s law, but also for the teaching of science in general.