Confronting Conceptual Challenges in Thermodynamics by Use of Self-Generated Analogies (original) (raw)
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Using self-generated analogies in teaching of thermodynamics.
Using self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method in a constructivist tradition for students to learn about a new subject, by use of what they previously know. We report on a group exercise on using self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes, reversible adiabatic expansion and free adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. The participants (N ¼ 8) were physics preservice teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. A main finding was that work with self-generated analogies tended to be accompanied by the students assuming ownership for their learning, manifested in terms of actions of choice and control and the use of exploratory talk. Consequently, several self-generated analogies were elaborated and developed to a high-order relational structure. However, we also found that with the use of self-generated analogies in science teaching follows the risks of developing idiosyncratic explanations of the encountered phenomena or getting stuck in overly complex comparisons.
UniServe Science Proceedings, 2009
A large proportion of research in science education is either centred on or influenced by studies concerning conceptual change -in particular, the topic of students' misconceptions. This is justified by the observation that studies involving conceptual change or troublesome knowledge capture an aspect of science education that seems to be extremely significant for successful learning and vital for developments in instructional methods.
Students’ conceptual Difficulties in Thermodynamic
The learning difficulties for physical chemistry students from a multi-national, regional, tertiary education institution in Ethiopia where investigated using open-ended of questionnaires of diagnostic instrument contained 17 items followed up semi- structured interview distributed across basic chemical thermodynamics concepts. The research finding suggests that chemical thermodynamics is a topic fraught with conceptual difficulties and alternative conceptions based on the result from the study most physical chemistry students in our sample lack rudimentary understanding of thermodynamic concepts, there is no recognition of the fact that change in G of the system is directly related to change in S of the universe, there is uncertainty as to whether a spontaneous process requires entropy of the system or the entropy of the universe to increase, there is in certainty as to whether G < 0 implies that entropy of the system or entropy of the universe will increase. Based on the result of this diagnostic test instrument and structured interview based on the results, an alternative approach in which content – driven extra tutorials, are suggested for remediation that can partially tackle the source of learning difficulties in chemical thermodynamics
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2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
Firm understanding of thermodynamics by graduating engineers is critical for addressing key current and future global issues, e.g. the looming energy crisis, pollution and global warming. Forms of alternative energy, and the efficiency of their conversion processes, are all governed by the laws of thermodynamics. Despite this immense importance, engineering students has been having difficulties in building good knowledge of thermodynamics, and in applying this knowledge in problem solving and thermal design. Through a careful reading of the pertinent literature, this paper explains the difficulties students have and provides classifications of the difficulties in order to better understand them. The difficulties are grouped under major headings in order to give an easy-to-see view of them. A thorough understanding of these difficulties, and their root causes, is vital for any instructional design aimed at mitigating these problems, and for enabling better learning of thermodynamics. The paper also summarizes the techniques that have been tried to solve these problems and the degree of success achieved. Generally speaking, there are two major classes of thermodynamic learning problems. First, students do not properly learn thermodynamic concepts and principles; second, students do not seem to recognize relevant concepts and principles, and combine them in order to solve thermodynamic problems. This paper argues that in order to design an edifying approach to improve students' learning of thermodynamics, the root causes must be addressed.
Determining Students' Conceptual Understanding Level of Thermodynamics
Science students find heat, temperature, enthalpy and energy in chemical reactions to be some of the most difficult subjects. It is crucial to define their conceptual understanding level in these subjects so that educators can build upon this knowledge and introduce new thermodynamics concepts. This paper reports conceptual understanding levels of high school students of common thermodynamics subjects such as heat, temperature, enthalpy and energy changes in chemical reactions. The sample of the study was composed of 418 randomly selected students from 11 different high schools. A cross sectional survey model was employed in this study. Data were collected through the Conceptual Understanding Test (CUT), which consists of 16 questions. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for the test was 0.72. Besides, interviews were conducted with 10 students to get qualitative data about their beliefs on the subject. The results of the study indicated that students' level of conceptual understanding in thermodynamics concepts is very low. It was observed to be especially low for the concepts of (1) relationship between energy, enthalpy and bonds in chemical reactions, (2) energy and catalysts in chemical reactions, (3) changes in heat, temperature and enthalpy during change of state, and (4) the relationship between heat, temperature, mass and specific heat. Most of the students in this study do not fully understand common thermodynamics concepts although they have been studying these topics since primary school.
Doing Positive Work: On student understanding of thermodynamics
This thesis addresses several aspects of the teaching and learning of thermodynamics in the context of first year university Physics. Thermodynamics is a topic that attracts far less attention at the first year level, both in terms of instruction time but also in the literature. The first part of the thesis focuses on the teaching aspect, and reports on a two-year experiment that involved introducing Interactive Engagement techniques in lectures to facilitate ‘Active Learning’. Two different Interactive Engagement techniques were compared, the Interactive Lecture Demonstrations and the Interactive Exercises, across four first year Physics thermodynamics ‘streams’ at The University of Sydney (approximately N=600). In the first year, 2011, there were no differences in learning outcomes between the four streams as measured by the Thermal Concepts Survey and the final first year Physics exam (each technique was trialled in two classes). In 2012 the Thermal Concepts Survey reveals a difference in the streams, with one of the streams which received the Interactive Lecture Demonstration program performing significantly better than the others. Both programs were characterised in terms of the activity of the lecturer and in terms of student engagement. Evaluation surveys and interviews were deployed to gather more information about how the programs were received by the students. The second part of the thesis focuses on student understanding. First, student understanding is examined using existing measures, such as the quantitative analysis of the Thermal Concepts Survey and qualitative analysis of short answer responses to a series of thermodynamics questions/problems (the Interactive Exercises). Several specific findings were made, highlighting particular aspects of thermodynamics that caused difficulties for students. In order to address some of the limitations in these existing approaches, and to provide more explanatory analyses, a novel approach was pursued and developed. This approach, Legitimation Code Theory, was used to examine student understanding of thermodynamics through the focus on the organising principles of knowledge. The analysis using Legitimation Code Theory reveals that the nature of the scientific knowledge students encounter has real effects on their engagement with the subject, and this, in turn, has consequences for instructional practices. It will be argued that Legitimation Code Theory is a powerful framework that can provide substantial utility for the study of student understanding and to science and Physics Education Research in general.
An Exploration of Tertiary students’ Conceptions of Familiar Thermodynamic Processes
School of Physics, University of Sydney, 2009
ii Acknowledgements I returned to university this year after three years of experience in the 'real world'. The experience I received throughout the honours year has been invaluable and for this, I have many people to thank. First and foremost thank you to the SUPER group, who helped in many aspects of the administration and progress of the project. I am grateful to my supervisor Manju Sharma for truly doing everything a supervisor should, and then some. To my secondary supervisors, Brian McInnes, Ian Sefton and John O'Byrne, thank you for your suggestions, support and mentoring. John, your constructive criticism is some of the most helpful I have received throughout my education and training. To Alex Hugman and Ian Johnston of the SUPER group, I had immediate respect and admiration for you both and valued the opportunity to work with you. To my fellow SUPER students, Nigel Kuan, George Pinniger and especially Christine Lindstrom, I have rarely had so many people around me are so in tune with my own attitudes, beliefs and interests. Thankyou to Ian Cooper for entering all of the exam data and thankyou to Thomas Hubble, Kevin Varvell, Richard Tarrant and all of the Lab supervisors and tutors for helping administer the tests. Off course, a big thanks to all of the students who voluntarily participated in the project. Finally, I must express eternal gratitude to my ever patient family, who have provided unconditional support and encouragement and have sacrificed a great deal over the years for my education and ambitions. To my husband David Fergusson, thank you for your cooperation and confidence in my venture and for murdering all of my comma's and teaching me the secrets about how to write good.
Difficulties in Learning Thermodynamics, That Have Their Origin in the Subject Matter
EDULEARN19 Proceedings, 2019
Thermodynamics is hard, according to a widely extended opinion of students that major in engineering, chemistry or science, and of many instructors, around the world. The difficulties in learning the subject have different sources pertaining to the contents, the textbooks, the students, the instructors, the academic institutions, etc. This paper particularly addresses those difficulties in learning the subject that can be traced back to the features of the content matter itself. The study is part of a program of research that investigates in an integral manner the main factors of the problem. A review of pertinent literature, a critical analysis of programs of study with their learning objectives, and many technical debates by a group of experts in physics teaching, pedagogy and psychology, led to the identification of the following set of difficulties directly linked to the content matter of thermodynamics. a) Some of the principles of this subject can be stated in various ways, wh...
Confronting challenges in thermodynamics by use of selfgenerated
Using self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method in a constructivist tradition for students to learn about a new subject, by use of what they previously know. We report on a group exercise on using self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes, reversible adiabatic expansion and free adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. The participants (N ¼ 8) were physics preservice teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. A main finding was that work with self-generated analogies tended to be accompanied by the students assuming ownership for their learning, manifested in terms of actions of choice and control and the use of exploratory talk. Consequently, several self-generated analogies were elaborated and developed to a high-order relational structure. However, we also found that with the use of self-generated analogies in science teaching follows the risks of developing idiosyncratic explanations of the encountered phenomena or getting stuck in overly complex comparisons.
The Level Understanding of Thermodynamic Concept for Physics and Chemistry Undergraduate Students
Jurnal Pendidikan Fisika
Thermodynamics is an abstract concept making it difficult for physics and chemistry undergraduate student to understand it. The purpose of this research is to know the level understanding of the fundamental concepts of thermodynamics so that lecturers can develop strategies to teach thermodynamics appropriately. An exploratory small-scale study was conducted on students majoring in physics and chemistry to evaluate an understanding of heat, temperature, energy, work, thermodynamic processes and the first law of thermodynamics. The research sample consisted of 20 undergraduate students who were randomly selected from two majors, namely physics and chemistry. Data were collected through a diagnostic test to determine the level understanding of students' concepts which consisted of 20 questions. In addition, interviews were conducted with those of 20 students related to given questions. The results showed that the level of students' conceptual understanding of the concept of th...