Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics

We discuss the development and validation of a conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument called the survey of thermodynamic processes and first and second laws (STPFaSL) suitable for introductory physics courses. The survey instrument uses common student difficulties with these concepts as resour...

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Autores principales:	Benjamin Brown, Chandralekha Singh
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d96dbbd2a0bb4b3488458190b4274c4e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d96dbbd2a0bb4b3488458190b4274c4e2021-12-02T13:27:25ZDevelopment and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0101042469-9896https://doaj.org/article/d96dbbd2a0bb4b3488458190b4274c4e2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010104http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010104https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896We discuss the development and validation of a conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument called the survey of thermodynamic processes and first and second laws (STPFaSL) suitable for introductory physics courses. The survey instrument uses common student difficulties with these concepts as resources in that the incorrect answers to the multiple-choice questions were guided by them. After the development and validation of the survey instrument, the final version was administered at six different institutions. It was administered to introductory physics students in various traditionally taught calculus-based and algebra-based classes in paper-pencil format before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. We also administered the survey instrument to upper-level undergraduates majoring in physics and Ph.D. students for benchmarking and for content validity and compared their performance with those of introductory students for whom the survey is intended. We find that although the survey instrument focuses on thermodynamics concepts covered in introductory courses, it is challenging even for advanced students. A comparison with the base line data on the validated survey instrument presented here can help instructors evaluate the effectiveness of innovative pedagogies designed to help students develop a solid grasp of these concepts.Benjamin BrownChandralekha SinghAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 1, p 010104 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Benjamin Brown Chandralekha Singh Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
description	We discuss the development and validation of a conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument called the survey of thermodynamic processes and first and second laws (STPFaSL) suitable for introductory physics courses. The survey instrument uses common student difficulties with these concepts as resources in that the incorrect answers to the multiple-choice questions were guided by them. After the development and validation of the survey instrument, the final version was administered at six different institutions. It was administered to introductory physics students in various traditionally taught calculus-based and algebra-based classes in paper-pencil format before and after traditional lecture-based instruction in relevant concepts. We also administered the survey instrument to upper-level undergraduates majoring in physics and Ph.D. students for benchmarking and for content validity and compared their performance with those of introductory students for whom the survey is intended. We find that although the survey instrument focuses on thermodynamics concepts covered in introductory courses, it is challenging even for advanced students. A comparison with the base line data on the validated survey instrument presented here can help instructors evaluate the effectiveness of innovative pedagogies designed to help students develop a solid grasp of these concepts.
format	article
author	Benjamin Brown Chandralekha Singh
author_facet	Benjamin Brown Chandralekha Singh
author_sort	Benjamin Brown
title	Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
title_short	Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
title_full	Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
title_fullStr	Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
title_full_unstemmed	Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
title_sort	development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d96dbbd2a0bb4b3488458190b4274c4e
work_keys_str_mv	AT benjaminbrown developmentandvalidationofaconceptualsurveyinstrumenttoevaluatestudentsunderstandingofthermodynamics AT chandralekhasingh developmentandvalidationofaconceptualsurveyinstrumenttoevaluatestudentsunderstandingofthermodynamics
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Development and validation of a conceptual survey instrument to evaluate students’ understanding of thermodynamics

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