Construction and Implementation of a Conceptual Survey in Thermodynamics
Authors
Pornrat Wattanakasiwich
1Physics Education Research Unit, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP), Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok, Thailand
Preeda Taleab
Physics Education Research Unit, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Manjula D. Sharma
School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ian D. Johnston
School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract
Thermodynamics is a basic topic for both science and engineering disciplines. There have been many studies on heat and temperature, but only few focused on laws of thermodynamics. This research aims to develop a conceptual survey for assessing student understanding of fundamental principles in thermodynamics. The construction of the survey is based on previous physics education research studies, in order to shorten the process of conceptual survey construction. The final version called the Thermodynamic Concept Survey (TCS) has both Thai and English versions and is divided into two parts—Part I consists of temperature and heat transfer, and ideal gas law and Part II consists of the first law of thermodynamics and processes. The content validity was analyzed by both Thai and Australian physicists. The reliability of the survey was determined by using more than 2,000 student responses from Australia and Thailand. The statistical analyses showed that the survey is reliable and valid. We also report on the implementation of the survey to investigate alternative conceptions in thermodynamics. We find that students did better on the earlier set of questions than the latter which involved integration of concepts. Ranges of understanding from the extant literature have been used to explore student answers.
Author Biographies
Pornrat Wattanakasiwich, 1Physics Education Research Unit, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
2Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP), Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok, Thailand
Department of physics and materials science, Faculty of science, Chiang Mai University
Manjula D. Sharma, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
School of Physics, Associate Professor
Ian D. Johnston, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
The University of Sydney acknowledges that its campuses and facilities sit on the ancestral lands of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples, who have for thousands of generations exchanged knowledge for the benefit of all.
Learn more