LEARNING AND TEACHING ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT

THEORY

Jonte Bernharda, c, Anna-Karin Carstensenb, c

a
ITN, Campus Norrköping, Linköping University, S-60174 Norrköping, Sweden.
email : jonbe@itn.liu.se
b
School of Engineering, Jönköping University, P.O. Box 1026, S-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden.
email:caak@ing.hj.se
c
National Graduate School of Science and Technology Education Research, Campus Norrköping,
Linköping University, S-60174 Norrköping, Sweden

Student’s conceptions in circuit theory and electricity are not as well investigated as those in mechanics. Most
studies have been on pre-university students understanding of simple circuits and little research has been done on
university level students understanding. Some research indicates that the similar inappropriate understandings (For
example: Confusion between voltage and current and between energy and current. Problems with sign and an
inappropriate ability to reason globally) which can be found among younger students do exist even after that
students have followed university level courses in physics or electrical engineering. Students understanding of more
advanced topics in DC-theory, AC-theory and in applying transform (phasor, Fourier and Laplace) methods to
circuits are, to our knowledge, not investigated at all. We are, by means of videotaping labs and with semistructured
interviews, investigating engineering students understanding of electrical circuits including their understanding of
AC-electricity (with complex phasor representation), periodic signals (Fourier series) and transients (Laplace
transforms). We will report on some of our preliminary findings and also report on some learning approaches we
have developed using for example conceptual labs to enhance student understanding.

INTRODUCTION important to know not only DC-circuit theory but

also AC-circuit theory since AC-electricity is much
“What do you really do using these complex more common in technological practise. Students
numbers [in alternating current problems]?” This specialising in electrical engineering or
exclamation one of us (J. B.) heard from his co- engineering physics typically need to study not
instructor when preparing an alternating current only AC-circuits but methods for handling more
lab for a university-level electricity course about complex circuits and are usually requested to
15 years ago. The person behind this statement learn to apply various transform methods (phasor,
had, at that time, recently got a Ph D in physics. Fourier and Laplace) and Fourier-series in circuit
analysis. Understanding of concepts from circuit
This experience points to two conjectures from theory, and specially AC-electricity, periodic
a rich body of research in physics education [1– signals and transients, is important for
5]: understanding of for example electronics,
• A functional understanding (in this case an telecommunication and system theory.
understanding why complex representation and
phasors are used in theory of AC-electricity) is However research on student learning and
not typically an outcome of traditional instruction. understanding of electric circuit theory is still in its
Qualitative reasoning and the ability to make infancy. Student’s conceptions in circuit theory
verbal explanations must specifically be and electricity are not as well investigated as
addressed in teaching. those in mechanics. To our knowledge very little
• Even faculty members, graduate students and research has been done on student
students at high ranking institutions have understanding of more advanced topics in DC-
problems with their conceptual understanding. theory such as superposition, source
transformation, mesh-current and node-voltage
Learning electric circuit theory is important in methods or on students’ understanding of AC-
engineering education. For an engineer it’s electricity, periodic signals and on transients.
Most studies have dealt with pre-university preliminary results and hence this paper should
students understanding of simple resistive DC- be regarded as a report of “work in progress”.
circuits or simple circuits with a few bulbs and a
battery. Little research has been done on OVERVIEW OF EARLIER RESEARCH
university level students’ understanding.

METHOD AND SAMPLES Learning and teaching of physics

This work has been done in the context of an Research into the learning and teaching of
introductory course in electric circuit theory for 2 3
physics in general have been summarised into
students in an electrical engineering program at a the following points [1-3]:
major Swedish university. In the 2001/2002
academic year 56 students were enrolled in the • Facility in solving standard quantitative
course. The students were studying towards the problems is not an adequate criterion for
higher Swedish engineering diploma (equivalent functional understanding. Questions that
1
to an M Sc.) and the course was taken in the require qualitative reasoning and verbal
second semester of their first year. They had explanation are essential.
previously studied a first course in calculus and a
course in linear algebra. • A coherent conceptual framework is not
typically an outcome of traditional instruction.
The electric circuits course included topics Rote use of formulas is common. Students
such as node-voltage method and mesh-current need to participate in the process of
method (applied to DC-circuits, AC-circuits and constructing qualitative models that can help
with Laplace-transforms), superposition, source them understand relationships and differences
transformation, magnetic circuits, AC-electricity among concepts.
(including complex representation and phasors),
periodic signals and Fourier series in circuit • Certain conceptual difficulties are not
analysis and the use of transform methods overcome by traditional instruction. Persistent
(Fourier- and Laplace-transforms) in circuit conceptual difficulties must be explicitly
analysis. Nilsson and Riedel [6] was used as addressed by multiple challenges in different
textbook. context.
The course was taught using lectures, classes • Growth in reasoning ability does not usually
(the course was split into two sections) and labs result from traditional instruction. Scientific
(the group was further split into subsections reasoning skills must be expressly cultivated.
totalling 4 subsections for the whole course).
Labs were performed in groups of 2–3 students. • Connections among concepts, formal
representations, and the real world are often
Student’s communications and actions during lacking after traditional instruction. Students
labs were videotaped. Typically two lab-groups need repeated practice in interpreting physics
were videotaped each time. Thus about one-third formalism and relating it to the real world.
of the total number of students were videotaped
each time. On two occasions, for technical
reasons, only one camera was used. We are
• Teaching by telling is an ineffective mode of
instruction for most students. Students must
planning to supplement the videotaping of labs
be intellectually active to develop a functional
with interviewing selected students inside and
understanding.
outside this course.
The late Arnold Arons has stressed [4] “The
It should be pointed out that at the time of
pre- and mis-conceptions found to be widely
writing this paper the analysis of the videotaped
prevalent among students in introductory physics
lab-sessions had just begun. One lab-session
remains in the course. Thus the findings we have
put forward below should be treated as 2
In this paper we will not venture further into a discussion of
learning theory in general.
1 3
In the present Swedish engineering education system we This summary summarises the consensus of physics
have two parallel tracks: One leading to a lower engineering education researchers at a meeting at Tufts University some
diploma (~B Sc) and one leading to a higher diploma (~M Sc). years ago [2-3].
courses extend to students in upper division • Voltage is a part or a property of current.
courses, to secondary school teachers, to
graduate students, and even to some university Research has also shown that it is very difficult
faculty members. The proportion of individuals for students to se a circuit as a system and to
exhibiting such difficulties decreases significantly understand that local changes in a circuit results
but does not drop to zero discontinuously beyond in global changes and that all voltages and
introductory level.” [Emphasis in original text] currents in a circuit are affected. One can see
both:

Understanding of electric circuits • Local reasoning. Students focus their attention

upon one point in the circuit. A change in the
As mentioned in the introduction most of the circuit is thought on as only affecting current
research done on electric circuits are in the and/or voltages in the circuit there the change
domain of pre-university students understanding is made.
of DC-circuits.
• Sequential reasoning. If something is changed
According to this body of research [7-12] in the circuit this is thought on as only affecting
students tend to “cluster” together concepts such current and/or voltages in elements coming
as voltage, current, power and energy. This after the place there the change was made,
means that students do not clearly distinguish not before.
between these concepts and from this “clustering”
view follows conceptions such as: The research which has targeted university
students (even electrical engineering students) or
• Current consumption. secondary school teachers understanding of
electrical circuits indicates that these goups
• Battery as constant current supply. reveals very much the same difficulties as found
among younger students.
• No current – no voltage.

Question: A 24 V Direct Current source is

connected to a transformer with 100 turns
on the primary side and 50 turns on the
secondary side. On the secondary side is a
12 ! load connected. Calculate the voltage
V2 on the secondary side and the current I 2
through the load. The transformer can be
treated as an ideal transformer.

Question: Does the lamp glow? Answer: Most students used V2 = N 2/N1"V1
uncritically got V2 = 12 V and I2 = 1 A as
Answer: Many students argued that the lamp an answer instead of V2 = 0 V and I 2 = 0 A.
would not glow, since the electrons went to the
They overlooked the necessity of having an
earth instead. Some argued that it depended on
alternating current to have a varying
whether it was plus or minus which were
connected to the earth magnetic field and to obtain induction.
FIGURE 1. Examples of some of the ‘simple’ ‘conceptual’ questions one of us (J. B.) started to ask students on
exams some years ago. These turned out to be the most difficult questions on exams. The question to the left is
from Epstein: Thinking Physics [13].
 interpreted in a physics or in an engineering
context many things change: The role of symbols,
the conventions for interpreting the symbols and
the way equations are interpreted. Physics is not
just apllied mathematics. The way one thinks
about mathematics differs from what is taught in
the subject of mathematics. This process is not
5
transparent for students .

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

We will once again stress the point that we
report “work in progress” and that we are not
finished with analysis of our data.

We however see in the videorecordings from

the lab, and from in-class observations, very
much the same problems with conceptual
understanding of AC-electricity as have been
reported before with DC-circuits. A typical
FIGURE 3. Measurement of AC-currents in one of the
example is from different tasks in the lab there task in the laboratory aiming to give students an
students are asked to measure AC-voltages and understanding of Kirchoffs’ current law in the context of
AC-currents in a circuit using voltage and current AC-electricity. The circuit is arranged in such that
4
sensors . Students who have not conceptualised “output current” should equal the sum of the currents I1
the difference between voltage and current and I2. Included is also this summation (I1+I2) made by
struggle very much with how to connect these the software.
sensors. Typically some students would try to
connect the current sensor to the circuit in the One task in the laboratory was to measure the
same way as a voltage sensors. This means that AC-current in different circuit configurations
they are connecting the current sensor parallell to (Figure 3). Our aim was to enhance student
the circuit elements instead of connecting it in understanding of Kirchoffs’ current law. When
series. students were asked to also represent the
addition of currents i1(t) + i2(t) with the
We also see that many students struggle with corresponding complex phasor representation
the interpretation of mathematics in this context. many students were lost. Although they had
Although some students have problems with their learned complex numbers in mathematics and
understanding of “pure” mathematics this is not although the complex representation had been
our main point. Our conjecture is that the discussed in lectures and in the textbook students
students have problems with the translation back struggled with the translations of the
and forth between the “real” world and the measurements similar to the ones displayed in
mathematical representation of the observed figure 3 to the corresponding complex
data. This means that we focus on first arrow mathematical representation.
(Real world → Mathematical Representation) and
The observations we have made are very
third arrow (Mathematical Representation → Real
similar to the observations of Roth and Bowen
world) in figure 2. When mathematics is re- [14] in the context of graph interpretation: “Our

4 5
A computerised data acquisition system specially made for This issue is also discussed in the other paper [15] written by
educational purposes from PASCO were used. us.
research shows that competent readings are
related to understanding of both the phenomena y(t) = y1(t) + y2(t) =
signified and the structure of the signifying Y1msin(ωt + φ1) + Y2msin(ωt + φ2) =
j t j t
domain, familiarity with the conventions relating Im(Y1m⋅ e (ω + φ1)) + Im(Y2m⋅ e (ω + φ2)) =
jφ1 j ωt j j t
the two domains, and familiarity with the Im(Y1m⋅ e ⋅ e ) + Im(Y2m⋅ e φ1⋅ e ω ) =
j t j t
translating between the two domains. Graphs are Im(Y1⋅ e ω ) + Im(Y2⋅ e ω ) =
not significant (signifying!) signs on their own. /…/ jωt j ωt
Im(Y1⋅ e + Y2⋅ e ) = Im((Y1 + Y2)⋅ e ω ) =
j t

Finally, only through the continuous movement jωt

Im(Y⋅ e ) = Y ⋅sin(ωt + arg(Y))
between the experiential and expressive domains
do we expect students to begin to dissociate the
There
features of the two, which lead, without familiarity
Y = Y1 + Y2 =
in translating, to iconic errors.
Y1m⋅ (cosφ1 + j⋅sin φ1) + Y2m⋅ (cosφ2 + j⋅sin φ2) =
To deal with all these issues will require much
more than traditional instruction in graphing has = Y1m⋅ cosφ1 + Y2m⋅ cosφ2
allowed for. To read a graph competently, one + j⋅( Y1m⋅ sinφ1 + Y2m⋅ sinφ2) =
needs more than instruction on the mechanical = Y1x + Y2x + j⋅( Y1y + Y2y)
aspects of producing graphs. One’s extensive
interaction with the phenomena and Y= Y = (Y1x + Y 2x )2 + (Y 1y + Y 2y )2
representational means seems to be prerequisite
for competent graphing practises.” [Our
emphasis] arg(Y) = arctan( Y 1y + Y 2y )
Y 1x + Y 2x
The results of the preliminary analysis of our
data is very much in agreement with the results Y1x = Y1m⋅ cosφ1
and conclusion of Roth and Bowen [14] Y1y = Y1m⋅ sinφ1
mentioned above. Our analysis also suggest that Y2x = Y2m⋅ cosφ2
the competent use of mathematical represen- Y2y = Y2m⋅ sinφ2
tations and competent translations back forth
between the experiental (“real” world FIGURE 4. Some mathematics behind complex
observations) and expressive (mathematical representation: Addition of two sines (such as in
representation, graphing, talking …) domains is figure 3) with the same frequency. When relating to
very similar to that required in graphing as observations several translations back and forth, as
discussed in figure 2 and in the text, are needed.
discussed by Roth and Bowen. Note that in this context the equality signs have
different meaning in different lines above.
One of us (J. B.) has previously successfully Sometimes it signifies a mathematical trans-
developed an innovative course in engineering formation (second arrow in figure 2) and sometimes
mechanics [16] using conceptual labs. We are it represents a modelling or an interpretation (first
now developing conceptual labs in electric circuit and third arrows in figure 2).
theory (including some more advanced topics as
discussed above) using many of the ideas used
in the previous project and using findings
expressed in other studies [1-5].
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our aim is to help students relate electric
circuit phenomena to their representational Partial financial support from the Swedish
means (mathematical and graphical). We are National Agency for Higher Education, Council for
convinced, and the results of our research and Renewal of Higher Education, is gratefully
other researches support this claim, that this must acknowledged. Karin Bernhard is acknowledged
expressively and extensively be cultivated to for technical assistance.
make the process transparent to students.

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