Abstract
This study is the unpublished part of a research analysing the general ways of reasoning used by students in understanding the propagation of waves in a three-dimensional medium in the presence or the absence of obstacles. It focuses on the concept of wave surface and on the Huygens’ principle. Sets of questionnaires were designed and about 300 French physics students (aged 20–23) were questioned after lessons on waves. The same tendencies as those pointed out in our other research on waves are revealed: reasoning on a travelling shape considered as a material object and as a whole, reducing the number of variables. Certain pedagogical implications are discussed.
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Maurines, L. (2003). Mechanistic Reasoning on the Concept of Wave Surface, and on the Huygens’ Principle. In: Psillos, D., Kariotoglou, P., Tselfes, V., Hatzikraniotis, E., Fassoulopoulos, G., Kallery, M. (eds) Science Education Research in the Knowledge-Based Society. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0165-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-0165-5_14
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