Investigating a grade 11 student's evolving conceptions of heat and temperature

Many students enter physics courses with highly intuitive conceptions of nonobservable phenomena such as heat and temperature. The conceptions of heat and temperature are usually poorly differentiated and heat is often confused with internal energy. This article focuses on one student's cognitive and affective changes which occurred during the Grade 11 topic of heat and temperature. The instruction used an inquiry approach coupled with concept substitution strategies aimed at restructuring alternative conceptions identified using pretests. A constructivist perspective drove both the teaching and research, and Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning augmented the interpretive framework. The qualitative data comprising transcripts of all classroom discussions, student portfolios containing all of each student's written work, and teacher/researcher observations and reflections were collected and interpreted to generate a case study for one student named Ken. Ken's initial conceptual framework was undifferentiated with respect to heat and temperature. The course activities and concomitant use of concept substitution helped him differentiate these concepts and integrate them in a more scientifically acceptable way. A degree of affective and epistemological change was also identified as the course progressed. In-depth examination of the student's prior, formative, and final conceptions showed that during this unit, the student progressively accepted greater responsibility for his learning, was willing to take cognitive risks, and became more critical and rigorous in both written and verbal problem solving. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 55–87, 1999.