Making their own connections: Students' understanding of multiple models in basic electricity

In this study we explore the educational impact of teaching high school students several models of the same phenomenon. In particular, we create different sets of models of static electricity (each set containing 1 model of particles and 1 model of aggregates of particles) that are connected in specific ways and measure the effects of these links on further learning of circuit behavior. Four groups were run through a 2-week curriculum on direct current electricity. One group received "coordinated" models that are connected together by their mechanisms and representations. Another group received "noncoordinated" models that do not connect via mechanisms and representations. The other two groups served as control groups for the Coordinated and Noncoordinated conditions. Contrary to the hypothesis that Coordinated models would be easier to learn and apply, posttest results show that students in the Noncoordinated condition outperformed those in their control group; meanwhile, the Coordinated group did not outperform its control group on these tests. An analysis of process data gathered while students were working through the curriculum suggests that students in the Noncoordinated group were actively combining the different models presented in that treatment condition. We conjecture that the effort of trying to achieve coherence among models may have led to a better understanding as measured by the posttests.