Expression of Amount of Electric Current in Classes of Elementary and Lower Secondary School

Abstract

For this study, we conducted research into how the amount of electric current is expressed in the courses of study for elementary and lower secondary school science. The revision of the courses of study in 2017 standardized the expression to estimate the amount of current as “the amount of electric current is large/little” for both elementary and lower secondary schools for the first time. To evaluate if the new expression has since become widespread, we did a survey on the new expression with 76 lower secondary school students. In addition, we conducted the same questionnaire survey with 156 teachers in eight elementary schools and five lower secondary schools. The results of our surveys yielded three significant findings: 1) The lower secondary school students surveyed had started to adopt and use the expression, “the amount of electric current is large/little”, but they also tended to use the expression, “the amount of electric current is strong/weak.” 2) There was a larger difference in the expression (of the amount of electric current) between teachers in elementary schools and lower secondary schools. 3) Four out of the five major science textbooks for elementary schools continued to use the expression, “the amount of electric current is strong/weak”, until 2019.