Students' understanding of basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics

Duit, Reinders; Kesidou, Sofia

doi:10.1007/bf02356594

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In fact, Western learners, including English learners, may also face similar challenges due to the dichotomy between everyday speech and scientific terminology (see Strömdahl 2007;Duit and Kesidou 1988). Nevertheless, this issue may be more challenging for learners whose first language is Arabic, in contrast to French native speakers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this, research has shown that both Western and non-Western learners face this problem, but the cognitive load differs between the two groups, given the differences in language. Western learners' challenge in understanding scientific concepts lies in the difference between everyday speech and scientific language (Duit and Kesidou 1988;Strömdahl 2007). However, for non-Western learners, the difficulty is compounded because scientific language is a Western language.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Culture and Conceptualisation of Scientific Terms: An Analysis of the Concepts "Weight" and "Mass" in Arabic and French

Lahlou¹,

Rahim²

2016

KAJH

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Abstract. Studies on difficulties in understanding scientific terms have shown that the problem is more serious among non-Western learners. The main reasons for this are the learners' pre-existing knowledge of scientific terms, their native language incommensurability with Western languages, and the polysemy of the words used to denote scientific concepts. The current study is an analysis of the conceptualisation of scientific concepts in two culturally different languages, i.e. Arabic and French, which represent a non-Western language and a Western language respectively. Physics concepts which are considered as some of the most challenging concepts for non-Western languages Aranador 2005) were selected for analysis. To this end, the terms that refer to two physics concepts, "weight" and "mass" in Arabic ‫ن‬ ‫زْ‬ َ ‫و‬ (wazn) and ‫ة‬ َ ‫ل‬ ْ ‫ت‬ ُ ‫ك‬ (kutla) and inFrench poids and masse were semantically analysed. The analysis of the concepts in both languages is informed by the prototype theory by Rosch (1973;1975), idealised cognitive models (ICMs) by Lakoff (1987), and conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy by Lakoff and Johnson (2003). The data for analysis were retrieved from two comparable Arabic and French corpora, namely the ArabiCorpus and the Concordancier-Corpus Français. The results suggest that there are both similarities and differences between the Arabic and French concepts in terms of meanings, prototypes, and metaphorical as well as metonymic semantic extensions. These findings support the argument that the human conceptual system is related to our environmental and cultural experiences and also importantly, validate previous claims on the need for 20Hicham Lahlou and Hajar Abdul Rahim educators to be cognizant of the culturally relevant meanings of scientific words found in everyday language that may impede learners' understanding of scientific concepts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture and Conceptualisation of Scientific Terms: An Analysis of the Concepts "Weight" and "Mass" in Arabic and French

Lahlou¹,

Rahim²

2016

KAJH

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“…This is, however, an issue of equal importance--whether teachers will find the approach acceptable and be able to incorporate the ideas and materials into their teaching. Duit and Kesidou (1988) also point to the importance of this aspect for the development of new teaching approaches. We have seen that teachers who have been confronted with the ideas for the first time in training sessions understood the ideas and found them interesting and stimulating.…”

Section: Future Workmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…These ideas are traditionally not paid much attention in school science, at least until more advanced work, the Second Law having a reputation of being complex and difficult to understand. In addition, there has been a tendency not to pay much attention to research into children's ideas in this area, though work suggests that students tend to reason about the nature of changes in everyday terms rather than within a scientific framework (Duit & Kesidou, 1988). The research reported here is part of the evaluation of the teaching approach developed by the Energy and Change project (Boohan & Ogborn, 1996;Boohan, 1996a).…”

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confidence: 96%

Understanding why things happen: Case-studies of pupils using an abstract picture language to represent the nature of changes

Stylianidou

Boohan

1998

Research in Science Education

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This research is concerned with investigating children's understanding of physical, chemical and biological changes while using an approach developed by the project Energy and Change. This project aimed to provide novel ways of teaching about the nature and direction of changes, in particular introducing ideas related to the Second Law of Thermodynamics in a way accessible to pupils aged I 1 upwards. To accomplish this, the project developed an abstract picture language through which the scientific story is told. An intensive study of the learning of a number of different groups of pupils was undertaken, based on records of their written work, observational notes of lessons, and small group interviews. This paper follows the progress of three pairs of 12-year-old pupils over a period of eight months studying a variety of topics, drawing on the written assignments and tests they did, as well as on the observational records. The abstract picture language and the teaching approach aim to provide a coherent and systematic account of the fundamental nature of all changes. The analysis reveals some of the issues which are involved in understanding the nature and causes of change and how this understanding can be fostered.

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“…As a consequence of these problems, Solomon and Duit proposed that the second law of thermodynamics, with the idea of energy degradation and spontaneous heat transfer from objects of higher temperature to objects of lower temperature, may be easier for students to grasp than the first law of thermodynamics. In spite of the appeal of teaching the second law of thermodynamics before the first law (Duit 1983), Duit and Kesidou (1988;Kesidou and Duit 1993) found that students, who were previously exposed to traditional teaching of thermal science also had considerable conceptual challenges related to the second law of thermodynamics. They concluded that: …a mere enlargement of the traditional physics curriculum by the addition of ideas of the second law is not sufficient to familiarize students with these ideas.…”

Section: Energy In Science Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tension Between Visions of Science Education

Haglund

Hultén

2017

Sci & Educ

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The aim of this study is to contribute to an understanding of how curricular change is accomplished in practice, including the positions and conflicts of key stakeholders and participants, and their actions in the process. As a case, we study the treatment of energy in Swedish secondary curricula in the period 1962-2011 and, in particular, how the notion of energy quality was introduced in the curricula in an energy course at upper secondary school in 1983 and in physics at lower secondary school in 1994. In the analysis, we use Roberts' two competing visions of science education, Vision I in which school science subjects largely mirror their corresponding academic disciplines and Vision II that incorporates societal matters of science. In addition, a newly suggested Vision III represents a critical perspective on science education. Our analysis shows how Vision II and III aspects of science education have gained importance in curricula since the 1980s, but in competition with Vision I considerations. Energy quality played a central role in providing Vision II and III arguments in the curricular debate on energy teaching. Subsequent educational research has found that Swedish teachers and students struggle with how to relate to energy quality in physics teaching, which we explain as partly due to the tension between the competing visions.

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Students' understanding of basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics

Cited by 16 publications

References 5 publications

Culture and Conceptualisation of Scientific Terms: An Analysis of the Concepts "Weight" and "Mass" in Arabic and French

Culture and Conceptualisation of Scientific Terms: An Analysis of the Concepts "Weight" and "Mass" in Arabic and French

Understanding why things happen: Case-studies of pupils using an abstract picture language to represent the nature of changes

Tension Between Visions of Science Education

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