- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Physics Education Research

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Nature of heat inventory: Assessing students’ understanding of thermal processes in kinetic molecular terms

Alexander Volfson1, Orly Lankry2, and Yuval Ben Abu3,4,5

PDF

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 22, 020111 – Published 5 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q4n2-d2w3

Abstract

The present study describes the development and field testing of the nature of heat inventory (NOHI) that examines high school and undergraduate students’ understanding of heat transfer processes in the terms of kinetic molecular theory. NOHI comprises 10 items. Based on preliminary study and the history of science, the 30 distractors of NOHI were designed to reflect the following three categories of possible misconceptions regarding heat: (a) materialistic views, (b) hot atoms, and (c) expanding atoms. Field testing, carried out on 81 students for science teaching, showed the materialistic misconceptions of heat still to be the most popular. NOHI has been proven to be a valid and reliable tool that could be used to determine students’ thinking regarding classical heat processes.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (47)

  1. R. P. Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics(Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1963), Vol. I, Ch. 1.
  2. M. T. H. Chi, Three types of conceptual change: Belief revision, mental model transformation, and categorical shift, in Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change, edited by S. Vosniadou (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 2008), pp. 61–82.
  3. M. T. H. Chi, R. D. Roscoe, J. D. Slotta, M. Roy, and C. C. Chase, Misconceived causal explanations for emergent processes, Cogn. Sci. 36, 1 (2012).
  4. D. A. Nugraha, A. Suparmi, R. Winarni, and Suciati, Students’ profile of heat and temperature using HTCE in undergraduate physics, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 909, 012059 (2017).
  5. A. Volfson, H. Eshach, and Y. Ben-Abu, Introducing the idea of entropy to the ontological category shift theory for conceptual change: The case of heat and sound, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15, 010132 (2019).
  6. A. Volfson, H. Eshach, and Y. Ben-Abu, Development of a diagnostic tool aimed at pinpointing undergraduate students’ knowledge about sound and its implementation in simple acoustic apparatuses analysis, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 14, 020127 (2018).
  7. S. Vosniadou, International Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change, 2nd ed. (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, New York, 2013).
  8. K. E. Dunn and S. W. Mulvenon, A critical review of research on formative assessments: The limited scientific evidence of the impact of formative assessments in education, Pract. Assess. Res. Eval. 14, 1 (2009).
  9. P. Johnston and P. Costello, Principles for literacy assessment, Read. Res. Q. 40, 256 (2005).
  10. H. Eshach, Development of a student-centered instrument to assess middle school students’ conceptual understanding of sound, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 10, 010102 ( 2014).
  11. H. Eshach and I. Kukliansky, Developing of an instrument for assessing students’ data analysis skills in the undergraduate physics laboratory, Can. J. Phys. 94, 1 (2016).
  12. D. Hestenes, M. Wells, and M. Swackhamer, Force concept inventory, Phys. Teach. 30, 141 (1992).
  13. W. K. Adams and C. E. Wieman, Development and validation of instruments to measure learning of expert-like thinking, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 32, 1 (2010).
  14. B. Orazov, G. Issayeva, S. Maxutov, E. Kozhabekova, and N. Balta, Exploring university students’ misconceptions of the kinetic molecular theory of gases: A study from Kazakhstan, Eurasia J. Math. Sci. Technol. Educ. 21, em2587 (2025).
  15. S. R. Pathare and H. C. Pradhan, Students’ misconceptions about heat transfer mechanisms and elementary kinetic theory, Phys. Educ. 45, 629 (2010).
  16. R. K. Thorton and D. K. Sokoloff, Heat and Temperature Conceptual Evaluation, physport.org (2001). https://www.physport.org/assessments/assessment.cfm?I=16&A=HTCE.
  17. L. Ding, R. Chabay, and B. Sherwood, How do students in an innovative principle-based mechanics course understand energy concepts?, J. Res. Sci. Teach. 50, 722 (2013).
  18. S. Yeo and M. Zadnik, Introductory thermal concept evaluation: Assessing students’ understanding, Phys. Teach 39, 2001
  19. A. Volfson, H. Eshach, and Y. Ben-Abu, Physics teaching via dialogic discussions about circus activities, Contemp. Educ. Technol. 15, ep421 (2023).
  20. M. T. H. Chi, Commonsense conceptions of emergent processes: Why some misconceptions are robust, J. Learn. Sci. 14, 161 (2005).
  21. S. Vosniadou and W. F. Brewer, Mental models of the day/night cycle, Cogn. Sci. 18, 123 (1994).
  22. D. L. Medin and L. J. Rips, Concepts and categories: Memory, meaning, and metaphysics, in The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning, edited by K. Holyoak and B.Morrison (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2005), pp. 37–72.
  23. A. A. DiSessa, Knowledge in pieces, in Constructivism in the Computer Age, edited by G. Forman and P.Pufall (Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, 1988), pp. 49–70.
  24. L. Bao. Dynamics of student modeling: a theory, algorithms and application to quantum mechanics, University of Maryland, College Park, 1999.
  25. M. Reiner, J. D. Slotta, M. T. H. Chi, and L. B. Resnick, Naïve physics reasoning: A commitment to substance-based conceptions, Cogn. Instr. 18, 1 (2000).
  26. E. Hepler-Smith, The Elements: A Visual History of Their Discovery (review of Book by Philip Ball (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2022). ISBN: [Amazon][WorldCat].
  27. H. Eshach and J. L. Schwartz, Sound stuff? Naive materialism in middle-school students’ conceptions of sound, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 28, 733 (2006).
  28. A. L. Chandrasegaran, D. F. Treagust, and M. Mocerino, The development of a two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic instrument for evaluating secondary school students’ ability to describe and explain chemical reactions using multiple levels of representation, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. 8, 293 (2007).
  29. L. H. Janda, Psychological Testing: Theory and Applications (The Open University, Tel Aviv, 2008).
  30. R. M. Dilshad and M. I. Latif, Focus group interview as a tool for qualitative research: An analysis, Pak. J. Soc. Sci. 33, 191 (2013).
  31. N. Dogan and F. Abd-El-Khalick, Turkish grade 10 students’ and science teachers’ conceptions of the nature of science: A national study, J. Res. Sci. Teach. 45, 1083 (2008).
  32. R. Beichner, Testing student interpretation of kinematics graphs, Am. J. Phys. 62, 750 (1994).
  33. J. C. Cappelleri, J. J. Lundy, and R. D. Hays, Overview of classical test theory and item response theory for quantitative assessment of items in developing patient-reported outcome measures, Clin. Ther. 36, 648 (2014).
  34. L. Terry and K. Kelley, Sample size planning for composite reliability coefficients: Accuracy in parameter estimation via narrow confidence intervals, Br. J. Math. Stat. Psychol. 65, 371 (2011).
  35. N. A. Thompson, Introduction to Classical Test Theory with CITAS (Assessment Systems Corporation, Minnetonka, 2016).
  36. L. Bao and E. F. Reddish, Model analysis: Representing and assessing the dynamics of student learning, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 010103 (2006).
  37. D. Halliday, R. Resnick, and J. Walker, Fundamentals of Physics, 10th ed. (Wiley, New York, 2014).
  38. D. M. Rubio, M. Berg-Weger, S. S. Tebri, E. S. Lee, and S. Rauch, Objectifying content validity: Conducting a content validity study in social work research, Soc. Work Res. 27, 94 (2003).
  39. J. W. Creswell, Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1994).
  40. R. Berger and M. Hänze, Impact of expert teaching quality on novice academic performance in the jigsaw cooperative learning method, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 37, 294 (2015).
  41. K. S. Taber, The use of Cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education, Res. Sci. Educ. 48, 1 (2016,
  42. A. Batey, J. Pollard, S. Shott, J. Yost, and K. Merrill, Development of learners’ thinking by means of information technologies, in Intel Program “Future learning”, edited by E. N. Yastrebtzev (Printing Plant of Bogorodsk, Noginsk, 2006).
  43. H. Eshach, An analysis of conceptual flow patterns and structures in the physics classroom, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 32, 451 (2009).
  44. A. A. DiSessa, A friendly introduction to “Knowledge in pieces”: modeling types of knowledge and their roles in learning, in Invited Lectures from the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education, edited by H. Kaiser et al. (Springer, Switzerland, 2018), pp. 65–84.
  45. D. Raine and J. Collett, Problem-based learning in astrophysics, Eur. J. Phys. 24, 41 (2003).
  46. A. Volfson and Y. Ben-Abu, The physics of a rope dart: Mass, force and circular motion, Phys. Teach 62, 2024
  47. N. S. Rebello and D. A. Zollman, The effect of distracters on student performance on the force concept inventory, Am. J. Phys. 72, 116 (2004).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 22, 020111– Published 5 August, 2026
  • Received 28 September 2025
  • Revised 5 June 2026
  • Accepted 16 April 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

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.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation