Pupils’ Explanations of Natural Phenomena and Their Relationship to Electricity

Abstract

Changes in pupils’ views concerning natural phenomena, some of which are related to electricity, were in- vestigated. Inclusion of phenomena not related to electricity was used, to find out to what extent pupils of elementary school attribute these phenomena to electricity. The participants were elementary school pu- pils coming from a traditional population of a village in the Galilee. The sample contained 60 pupils from the fourth grade (aged 9 - 10). The pupils were questioned before and after receiving instruction, and the same pupils were also questioned at the beginning and end of the sixth grade (aged 11 - 12), following a second period of instruction. Qualitative explanations of the pupils show changes during age. Results show development from mostly mechanical explanations at ages 9 - 10 to preference of electrical expla- nations and wide use of concepts related to electricity at age 11, such as current, electrical charges, or electrons. Previous research and the results of this paper lead to a suggestion of a new approach to elec- tricity instruction in elementary schools.