Recognition and conversion of electric field representations: The case of the algebraic notation
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Genaro Zavala 1 2 , Kristina Zuza 3 , Jenaro Guisasola 4 , Esmeralda Campos 5 *
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1 Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, MEXICO2 Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, CHILE3 Department of Applied Physics, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), San Sebastian, SPAIN4 School of Dual Engineering, IMH Campus-UPV/EHU, Elgoibar, SPAIN5 Austrian Educational Competence Center Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, AUSTRIA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This conceptual understanding article is part of a series where we analyze the recognition and conversion of representations of the electric field concept; in this article, we present the case of algebraic notation. We conducted a study with introductory and upper-division physics students taking electricity and magnetism courses in a large private Mexican university to learn how students recognize the electric field’s main characteristics in the algebraic notation of the field and how they convert to and from different representations. We refer to the theory of registers of semiotic representations as a theoretical framework and use a phenomenographic approach to analyze data. We explored students’ recognition and conversion abilities through interpretation and construction tasks for the electric field’s algebraic notation. We found that the main difficulties of interpreting and constructing the algebraic notation are related to separating the mathematical expression from the situation’s physical meaning. Sometimes, students referred only to the physical meaning without using algebraic notation. In other cases, they construct algebraic notation without explicitly describing the physical meaning. Another source of difficulty is the treatment process because some students make mistakes or misinterpretations that they carry throughout. We recommend that introductory and upper-division electricity and magnetism instructors and physics education researchers in higher education be aware of the difficulties that some interpretation and construction tasks may present to students learning the electric field concept.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 22, Issue 3, March 2026, Article No: em2798

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/18073

Publication date: 11 Mar 2026

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