An exploratory study about students' conceptions of the dielectric concept

Abstract

The objective of this work is to identify the conceptions of the first year students about the concept of Dielectric. About 26 students who attend the Electricity and Magnetism course at the Instituto Superior de Transportes e Comunicações (ISUTC) participated in the study. A test with an open question was used, where students could scientifically justify. The theoretical lineage followed in this study was constructivism according to Jean Piaget. However, in the present study it is concluded that the majority of students did not assimilate the matter related to the concept of dielectric since about 73.08% of the students did not answer the question correctly, among them some made a mistake, others confused the elaboration of the response or simply did not respond. It is also concluded that there are many non-scientific conceptions in the students, due, perhaps, to the complexity of the subject and lack of treatment of it in the previous classes or levels.