Search

Qualitative research conducted with 237 pupils from Canada, France, and Morocco, between 10 and 12 years of age, on the setting and functioning of simple electric circuits, demonstrates that similar explanatory systems of the students. For this, we had given them a paper and pencil questionnaire of a sixty minutes duration. The first question was related to power a light bulb using wires and battery. The second issue was intended to determine whether pupils are conscious of the danger associated with a polarity battery. The third is related to the flow of electric current between the + and - terminals of a battery in an electric circuit. The last question requires an understanding of the law of conservation of the charge in a circuit constituted by a battery and a bulb. This research provides an answer to the question of ethnocentricity and universality of students' conceptions from different cultures and linguistic communities. In this research, the thesis of the universality was establish from the students' responses to a questionnaire.

A qualitative research approach was chosen to analyse the conceptions of pupils attending elementary school from Canada (N = 135), France (N = 30) and Morocco (N = 92) between 10 and 12 years of age. Their conceptions were identified while being mobilised on energy transformations during the working of a simple electric circuit made of a battery, a bulb and electric wires: light, thermal, electrical and chemical. With paper and pencil, they completed a questionnaire made up of six questions during a forty-five minute period. The analysis of the data of the experimentation demonstrates that the majority of the conceptions identified are naïve compared to those constructed by the scientists. It also shows that their conceptions are similar in spite of the different cultures. The results confirm the findings of the international community of researchers in didactics of sciences regarding the universality of children's conceptions about the working of simple electrical circuits. These findings have implications on teacher training, science teaching and learning in a multiple cultural environment.