The Concept of Electrical Resistance: How Cassirer's Philosophy,and the Early Developments of Electric Circuit Theory,Allow a Better Understanding of Students' Learning Difficulties

While students' difficulties concerning the concepts of voltage and intensity have been investigated by many science education researchers, difficulties related to the concept of electrical resistance and circuit are less known. Some researchers in science education even state that students have no preconception about this concept before being taught. Our observations are in disagreement with this assumption. In the first section of this paper the main basic features of the difficulties of students confronted with the concept of electrical resistance are investigated. In the second section we discuss the nature of the electrical resistance concept in the light of Cassirer philosophy while in the third section we give an analysis of this concept going back to its origins in the nineteenth century. Finally, an analysis of the way this concept is taught in French high schools is presented and the first results of a experimentation using an alternative teaching strategy are briefly reported.c