The comparison of misunderstanding of the third grade high school students and B.A and M.A students about the concept of electricity

The aim of the present research was to investigate about the comparison of misunderstanding of the third grade high school students and B. A and M. A students about the concept of electricity. The research method was descriptive survey. The population of the study was consisted of all high school students in Tehran، all students of Computer Engineering (Software Engineering)، the students of Information Technology (B. A) and the students of solid-state physics (M. A) in Tehran Payame Noor University، Robatkarim، in academic year 1391-1392. 285 participants consisted the sample، including 125 students from high school (68 from math major and 57 from empirical science major)، 130 undergraduate students (72 Computer Engineering students and 58 Information Technology students) and 30 M. A students (Solid-State physics). A diagnostic test comprising six questions with multiple-choice format was used to collect the required data. To ensure the content validity of the instrument، a panel of 20 teachers of physics verified the questionnaire. The reliability was confirmed by Cronbach''s alpha as 0. 87. The test was given in a normal condition with no in advance awareness. After the test was run، the frequency، frequency percentage، the tables and corresponding graphs were used. To assess how well students understood، the conceptual evaluation method was applied. In this method، the options were categorized in four types as: full understanding، partial understanding، misunderstanding and lack of understanding. The findings showed new misunderstandings about the concepts of static electricity. Based on these findings، it seems so necessary that physics curricula and instructional materials which are about to be recently revised by the Ministry of Education be taken into more considerations so as to organize the concepts of static electricity and its modeling in related textbooks.