Recognition and conversion of electric field representations: The case of vector field plot
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Esmeralda Campos 1 , Kristina Zuza 2 , Jenaro Guisasola 3 , Genaro Zavala 4 5 *
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1 Austrian Educational Competence Center Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, AUSTRIA2 Department of Applied Physics, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, SPAIN3 School of Dual Engineering, IMH Campus, Elgoibar, SPAIN4 Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, MEXICO5 Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, CHILE* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This conceptual understanding article is part of a series where we explore the recognition and conversion between representations of the electric field concept; in this article, we present the vector field plot’s case. We conducted a study with higher education introductory and upper-division Physics students in a large private Mexican university, intending to learn how students recognize the electric field’s main characteristics in the vector field plot independently and as a source or target representation in conversion processes. We used the theory of registers of semiotic representations and a phenomenographic approach as a framework to analyze data. We explored students’ recognition and conversion abilities through interpretation and construction tasks. We found that the main difficulties of interpreting and constructing the vector field plot are related to the representation’s surface features, often delimited by physical considerations. In the interpretation tasks, this was observed as the interpretation of the physical symmetry, while in construction tasks, it was evident by the confinement of vectors and other associated difficulties. In conversion processes, we observed that there might be an interaction between the source and the target representation, which may result in difficulties in interpreting the vector field plot. We recommend that higher education introductory and upper-division electricity and magnetism instructors and physics education researchers 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 1, January 2026, Article No: em2759

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/17633

Publication date: 01 Jan 2026

Online publication date: 23 Dec 2025

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