Abstract:
This paper reports a quantitative study about university students’
conceptual understanding of simple DC-circuits when entering firstyear
physics at a South African university. The aim was to investigate
how conceptual understanding relates to the students’ personal and
school background. The conceptual framework was based on an
existing model of the effectiveness of science education. Data were
collected from 815 participants at a South African university. The
conceptual understanding of DC circuits was measured in terms
of performance in the well-known Determining and Interpreting
Resistive Electric Circuits Concepts Test (DIRECT). Background
information at school, classroom, and personal level was obtained
with a questionnaire. Using Rash analysis, it was found that the
students’ conceptual understanding relates significantly to the
type of school attended, home language, previous achievement,
their attitudes towards physics, and gender. However, contrary to
expectations, the students’ conceptual understanding did not show
a relationship with their exposure to practical work at school.
