The effects of using the electric circuit model in science education to facilitate learning electricity-related concepts

Abstract

Among many science topics taught in the middle school, students find electricity-related concepts most difficult to understand, Many studies show that there is a significant gap between the level of students' performance in the tests and the amount of content on the subject. This implies that students have difficulty understanding abstract concepts and that a revision of the current teaching strategies is needed in order to facilitate students' learning and understanding of the subject matter. This study, therefore, purported to examine students' ability to comprehend the content on electricity when a electric circuit model was applied and incorporated in teaching. Sixty eighth-graders were sampled from a middle school in Seoul, and they were divided into three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. In experimental group I, the electric circuit model developed for this study was used. In experimental group II, the electric circuit model, presented with a flowing-water analogy in the science textbook, was used. In the control group, only the flowing-water analogy in the textbook was used as teaching strategy. The results of this study show that there were statistically significant differences between the two experimental groups and the control group, which implies that the use of the electric circuit model as a concrete and tangible teaching aid was more effective in explaining electricity-related concepts than use of the flowing-water analogy alone. There was, however, no significant difference between the first experimental group, which used the electric circuit model alone, and the second experimental group, which used the model with the flowing-water analogy. The study shows that utilizing more concrete visual aids and props such as the model, are effective in facilitating the learning process and in increasing comprehension of the material.