NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ1313349
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2469-9896
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Investigating Graduate Student Reasoning on a Conceptual Entropy Questionnaire
Crossette, Nathan; Vignal, Michael; Wilcox, Bethany R.
Physical Review Physics Education Research, v17 n2 Article 020119 Jul-Dec 2021
Student learning in upper-division thermal physics has not been studied to the same extent as in other courses like electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. Studies addressing reasoning and learning at the graduate level are even more limited. In this study, we conducted think-aloud interviews with eight graduate students involving questions centered around a set of entropy related conceptual tasks, two of which are similar to tasks presented to undergraduates in other studies. We discuss patterns in student reasoning on each question then discuss themes that appeared across questions. We identify conceptual resources that students frequently used to reason about the interview tasks and compare them to prior work. We observed graduate students commonly thinking about entropy in relationship to a number of states, even in situations where such a connection was not directly relevant. Graduate students also frequently made direct associations between entropy and temperature, despite there being no general, explicit relationship between the two quantities. On the whole, graduate students demonstrated adaptability and metacognitive awareness in their approach to reasoning about entropy.
American Physical Society. One Physics Ellipse 4th Floor, College Park, MD 20740-3844. Tel: 301-209-3200; Fax: 301-209-0865; e-mail: assocpub@aps.org; Web site: http://prst-per.aps.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Colorado (Boulder)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A