Evolution in students’ understanding of thermal physics with increasing complexity

Abstract

We analyze the development in students' understanding of fundamental principles in the context of learning a current interdisciplinary research topic-soft matter-that was adapted to the level of high school students. The topic was introduced in a program for interested 11th grade high school students majoring in chemistry and/or physics, in an off-school setting. Soft matter was presented in a gradual increase in the degree of complexity of the phenomena as well as in the level of the quantitative analysis. We describe the evolution in students' use of fundamental thermodynamics principles to reason about phase separation-a phenomenon that is ubiquitous in soft matter. In particular, we examine the impact of the use of free energy analysis, a common approach in soft matter, on the understanding of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics. The study used diagnostic questions and classroom observations to gauge the student's learning. In order to gain insight on the aspects that shape the understanding of the basic principles, we focus on the responses and explanations of two case-study students who represent two trends of evolution in conceptual understanding in the group. We analyze changes in the two case studies' management of conceptual resources used in their analysis of phase separation, and suggest how their prior knowledge and epistemological framing (a combination of their personal tendencies and their prior exposure to different learning styles) affect their conceptual evolution. Finally, we propose strategies to improve the instruction of these concepts.

Identifying student difficulties with entropy, heat engines, and the Carnot cycle

“…In many cases students relate entropy directly (and often incorrectly) to either more familiar thermodynamic quantities (e.g., heat transfer, temperature, work) [2,22], or an imprecisely defined sense of "disorder" [4] when reasoning about entropy changes during particular processes. Langbeheim et al reported similar failures to invoke the 2 nd Law when asking high school students about the signs of entropy changes during phase separation [23]. All of these results imply an incomplete understanding of entropy and how to apply the 2 nd Law.…”

Identifying student resources in reasoning about entropy and the approach to thermal equilibrium

“…In that study, Christensen et al reported several common conceptual difficulties with entropy, including a strong tendency of students to conserve entropy inappropriately, and a tendency to assume that the entropy of all systems must increase, whether or not the system is isolated. Another recent study has used tasks adapted from [7] to probe student understanding of entropy [8].…”

Estilos de aprendizaje en los estudiantes de bachillerato

“…Los estudiantes con diferentes estilos de aprendizaje revelaron diferencias notables en el logro de aprendizaje, pero no diferencias notables con el aprendizaje significativo, en la conclusión del estudio de (Fan et al, 2015). El análisis de (Langbeheim et al, 2013) sugiere que los conocimientos previos y el marco epistemológico (una combinación de sus tendencias personales y exposición previa a diferentes estilos de aprendizaje) afectan su evolución conceptual.…”