Effect of an inquiry-based learning method on students' misconceptions about charging of conducting and insulating bodies

This study examined the effect of an inquiry-based learning method on eliminating misconceptions about the charging of insulating and conductive materials. The study was conducted using three inquiry-based activities prepared by the researchers. The participants in the study were 19 pre-service teachers enrolled on the General Physics 2 course at Dokuz Eylül University. The qualitative data in the study consisted of the responses the students gave to the open-ended questions posed in the inquiry-based activities while the quantitative data consisted of the results obtained from the electrical conductivity concepts test (ECCT). It was found from a review of the responses given to the open-ended questions that the students believed that insulators could not be charged by induction, that neutral objects were uncharged, that the inner surfaces of conductive materials could be charged just like their outer surfaces and that the electric field inside insulators corresponded to zero. It was established at the end of the activities that almost all of these misconceptions had been dispelled. At the same time, it was determined that the students' ECCT scores at the end of the activities showed a significant increase from their pretest levels.