Development of the kinetic molecular theory of gases concept inventory: Preliminary results on university students' misconceptions

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Nataša Erceg; MBZ: 326300
• Author: Ivica Aviani; MBZ: 76256
• Author: Vanes Mešić
• Author: Matko Glunčić; MBZ: 256133
• Author: Gordana Žauhar; MBZ: 142294
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Science; (Department of Physics)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Physics
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Pedagogy

Abstract (english)

In this study, we investigated students' understanding of concepts related to the microscopic model of gas. We thoroughly reviewed the relevant literature and conducted think-alouds with students by asking them to answer open-ended questions about kinetic- molecular theory of gases. Thereafter, we transformed the open-ended questions into multiple-choice questions, whereby distractors were based on the results of the think-alouds. Thus, we obtained a set of 22 questions which constitutes our current version of the Kinetic Molecular Theory of Gases Concept Inventory. The inventory has been administered to 250 students from different universities in Croatia, and its content validity has been investigated trough physics teacher surveys. The results of our study not only corroborate the existence of some already known student misconceptions, but also reveal new insights about a great spectrum of students' misconceptions that had not been reported in earlier research (e.g. misconceptions about intermolecular potential energy and molecular velocity distribution). Moreover, we identified similar distribution of students' responses accross the surveyed student groups, despite the fact that they had been enrolled in different curricular environments.

• Keywords (english): Physics education research; Kinetic molecular theory of gases; Physical concepts
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Physical Review Physics Education Research
• Numbering: vol. 12, no. 2, 020139
• p-ISSN: 2469-9896
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020139
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:217:457123
• Publication: 2016
• Document URL: https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020139
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Public note: © 2016 American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Received 28 June 2016; published 16 November 2016.
• Created on: 2020-02-24 18:55:25