Identifying students’ difficulty in the basic of thermodynamics

Conceptual understanding is one of the main topics in physics educational research. It is important as the basic of other ability in education, such as argumentation, making scientific explanation and problem solving. This survey study aims to identify students’ difficulty to understand the basic of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2021-11, Vol.2126 (1), p.12010
Main Authors: Sutarja, M C, Wulandari, A Y R
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Conceptual understanding is one of the main topics in physics educational research. It is important as the basic of other ability in education, such as argumentation, making scientific explanation and problem solving. This survey study aims to identify students’ difficulty to understand the basic of thermodynamics. There are 128 first year undergraduate students as the participants of the study. The data collection method is test. Result of the study shows that isobaric process of ideal gas and mechanical equilibrium state concepts are the most difficult concepts. Some difficulties are found in understanding the basic of thermodynamics: (1) because of the presence of higher cognitive load while solving conceptual problems, (2) when the question demands other ability, especially mathematical ability, to solve the conceptual problem, (3) because of students’ disability to integrate the knowledge. This study could be used to develop learning instruction or media in basic physics or introduction of thermodynamics course.
ISSN:1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/2126/1/012010