This study examines the causal reasoning that university students use to explain how dc circuits work. We analyze how students use the concepts of electric field and potential difference in their explanatory models of dc circuits, and what kinds of reasoning they use at the macroscopic and microscopic levels in their explanations. This knowledge…

This study tested the amount of value added to critical and communication skills by the university experience using a strategy that compared the skills of entering and graduating students at York University (Ontario). The study involved, first, identifying skills that might be improved over the course of a university education; second, developing…