Menurut sejarah, istilah tenaga sudah lama diguna pakai dalam perbualan harian untuk menjelaskan aktiviti yang berkaitan dengan kemampuan melakukan kerja, tetapi istilah ini tidak semestinya boleh digunakan dalam semua bidang. Kajian lepas menunjukkan terdapat pelbagai konsep pengetahuan alternatif terpahat dalam minda pelajar yang mungkin sama atau bertentangan dengan pemahaman saintifik ahli fizik. Oleh itu, penyelidikan yang berteraskan tradisi pendidikan Jerman-Didaktik telah dijalankan. Menurut tradisi ini guru mesti “mengelementarisasikan” isi kandungan pengetahuan fizik dan menyepadukannya dengan konsep pengetahuan alternatif pelajar untuk melaksanakan PDPC yang berkesan. Penyelidikan ini dijalankan untuk memahami bagaimana jurang pemahaman konsep tenaga antara ahli fizik dan pelajar fizik sekolah menengah boleh dirapatkan dengan menggunakan Model Pembinaan Semula PdPC (MPSP). Oleh itu, penyelidik telah meneliti 15 penerbitan utama untuk menentukan pemahaman saintifik ahli fizik tentang tenaga, menjalankan temu bual separa berstruktur melibatkan 12 orang pelajar fizik sekolah menengah untuk mencari konsep pengetahuan alternatif tenaga mereka dan menganalisis semula 23 kajian terdahulu yang berkaitan dengan isu yang sama. Kaedah analisis kualitatif kandungan dan analisis metafora digunakan untuk membantu penyelidik merungkai makna yang tersurat dan tersirat di sebalik bahasa fizik mahupun bahasa perbualan harian yang mengandungi konsep tenaga, dan bagaimana bahasa-bahasa ini saling berinteraksi. Dapatan kajian diwakili oleh laluan pembelajaran yang menghubungkan konsep fizik berorientasikan aktiviti harian dan fizik. Laluan pembelajaran ini memaparkan jurang pemahaman antara ahli fizik dan pelajar fizik sekolah menengah dan bagaimana mereka berkait antara satu sama lain.

Energy is an important concept in life, and is a basic theme of the three natural sciences; biology, chemistry, and physics. The concept of energy is introduced into the science curriculum at an early stage. The science education studies have shown that there are serious difficulties in understanding energy and its related concepts among students of all ages. This article reported a research on the conceptual development of energy in secondary school physics. This short-term learning progression research employs a method called developmental maieutics in order to answer the research question about how does a student develop an understanding of the concept of energy. There were six participants of 16 years old physics students involved in this research. The interview conducted was to analyze two developmental paths. First, it was on their levels of cognitive development based on Dawson's developmental sequence in four stages: representational mappings, representational systems, single abstractions and abstract mapping level. The second path was, their conceptual content development addressing to form and source of energy, transformation of energy, energy transfer and conservation of energy. Overall, each participant showed a development in both of the paths. Their conceptual understanding of energy increased to the higher levels, but some of them still had misconception although after attending the instruction. The researchers found that some participants' conception of energy were near to the scientific view of energy and almost had a complete understanding of energy conservation. Finally, this research contributed to a new perspective, particularly, in the conceptual development of energy research and, generally, in the learning progression study.

This study discusses how to transform physics content into instructional content using the Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER). The MER is a popular method of lesson design because it gives equal attention to the content of physics to be learned other than students’ cognitive, affective, and learning processes. This model is from the German-Didaktik tradition, which is influenced by constructivism and is nearly unknown in Malaysia. According to this perspective, knowledge is derived through human reconstruction, and every young learner has intuitive knowledge prior to entering a formal classroom. As a result, in order to meet students’ needs in a balanced manner, teachers must elementarize physics content and integrate it with students’ alternative conceptions. This study focused on energy concepts to determine how effective MER is. With the complexity and difficulty of the dual meaning of energy, physics teachers must devise efficient teaching techniques to bridge the gap between energy in everyday language and scientific concepts. Thus, the researchers evaluated 15 significant papers to determine scientists’ understanding of energy; interviewed 12 secondary school physics students to get their alternative conceptions; and re-analyzed 23 earlier studies on the same topic. This paper is exclusively on natural concepts and energy fundamentals, and it found physicists and students had a significant understanding gap. As a result, the contradiction in understanding of the energy concepts must be applied to the development of an energy lesson plan by narrowing the gap between physicists’ and students’ understanding.