Students’ alternative conceptions about thermal concepts: A study of diagnostic and formative assessment

To conduct a study that aimed to investigate the difficulties of high school students in the learning of thermal concepts it was necessary to survey students about alternative conceptions of heat and temperature, before and after a one year school term, applying a questionnaire available in the literature, which had to be properly adapted to the Portuguese language by the authors of this work. In this paper, the gains between the pre and post testing are analyzed and indicate significant variations in all investigated dimensions, suggesting a consistent framework for the conservation and homogeneity, in which the gain in the expected direction (scientific concepts) came at the expense of losses in all other aspects (alternative conceptions), and not just one or a few directions. Throughout the paper we present in detail the process of adapting the questionnaire, the analysis of the results and the construction of a version of the questionnaire on the web that will allow interested teachers to do a diagnostic and formative assessment of their students.

alternative conceptions; diagnostic and formative assessment