An International Comparison of Students' Understanding of Thermal Concepts Prior to Instruction

• In Event: 25.077 - Science Teaching and Learning SIG Paper Session: Discipline-Specific

Abstract

The Thermal Concept Evaluation (TCE) inventory, developed by Yeo and Zadnik (2001), has been administered to a large number of students in various countries to measure 35 well-known alternative thermal concepts. In this study, we administered an Arabic translation of the TCE to Saudi Arabian secondary schools and compared these results with published pre-test results of the TCE administered to secondary school students in South Korea and Brazil, and university students in Jordan and Libya. The investigation showed that in most cases, Saudi and Brazilian students performed at about the same level but the Korean students were superior to both. The Jordanian students registered the fewest alternative conceptions compared to other Arabic-speaking students from Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Authors

• David F. Treagust, Curtin University

• Asmahan Al Safwan, Curtin University

• Marjan Zadnik, Curtin University