Development of three-tier heat, temperature and internal energy diagnostic test

Abstract

Background:Misconceptions are major obstacles to learning physics, and the concepts of heat and temperature are some of the common misconceptions that are encountered in daily life. Therefore, it is important to develop valid and reliable tools to determine students' misconceptions about basic thermodynamics concepts. Three-tier tests are effective assessment tools to determine misconceptions in physics. Although a limited number of three-tier tests about heat and temperature are discussed in the literature, no reports discuss three-tier tests that simultaneously consider heat, temperature and internal energy.