Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics

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 therm...

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Main Authors: Wattanakasiwich,P., Taleab,P., Sharma,M.D., Johnston,I.D.S.
Format: Article
Published: University of Sydney 2015
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Online Access:http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84897799016&origin=inward
http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/38723
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Institution: Chiang Mai University
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spelling th-cmuir.6653943832-387232015-06-16T07:54:03Z Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics Wattanakasiwich,P. Taleab,P. Sharma,M.D. Johnston,I.D.S. Education 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. 2015-06-16T07:54:03Z 2015-06-16T07:54:03Z 2013-12-01 Article 22004270 2-s2.0-84897799016 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84897799016&origin=inward http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/38723 University of Sydney
institution Chiang Mai University
building Chiang Mai University Library
country Thailand
collection CMU Intellectual Repository
topic Education
spellingShingle Education
Wattanakasiwich,P.
Taleab,P.
Sharma,M.D.
Johnston,I.D.S.
Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
description 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.
format Article
author Wattanakasiwich,P.
Taleab,P.
Sharma,M.D.
Johnston,I.D.S.
author_facet Wattanakasiwich,P.
Taleab,P.
Sharma,M.D.
Johnston,I.D.S.
author_sort Wattanakasiwich,P.
title Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
title_short Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
title_full Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
title_fullStr Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
title_full_unstemmed Development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
title_sort development and implementation of a conceptual survey in thermodynamics
publisher University of Sydney
publishDate 2015
url http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84897799016&origin=inward
http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/38723
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