Abstract
Textbooks play a fundamental role in teaching and learning in school science classrooms. In this paper, we investigate the presentation of the nature of the electromagnetic field in a dozen of the world’s most popular introductory university physics textbooks. We analyze, from an epistemologically based teaching approach, the didactic treatment of the electromagnetic field in relation to its sources, Maxwell’s laws and electromagnetic waves. With this objective, we elaborate a rational reconstruction of the developments that led to the formulation of the nature of the electromagnetic field, Maxwell’s laws and their meaning, as well as electromagnetic waves. Next, we formulate criteria based on the key aspects derived from the reconstruction that are useful in the evaluation of electromagnetism textbooks at the introductory level and apply them to the sample of selected books. In light of the results, we reflect on their consequences for teaching. Our analysis indicates the existence of certain inconsistencies in the approach to the electromagnetic field and its relationship with its sources, Maxwell’s laws and electromagnetic waves in many of the books analyzed.
- Received 16 March 2023
- Accepted 29 June 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020113
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
