History of physics as a heuristic device to anticipate students’ ideas: the case of electrostatics

Empirical evidence supporting the heuristic usefulness of history of physics will be provided within the context of a project devoted to studying the educational significance of the historical-scientific collections preserved by universities and schools. It is shown that, to a certain extent, teachers’ knowledge of the history of electricity studies can be of assistance to them for anticipating student misconceptions about the properties of electrostatics attraction. Also, it is shown that the analysis of a historical collection of electrostatics instruments and the subsequent reconstruction of some of these instruments with present-day materials has positive effects on the learning of some parts of the physics of electricity.