A Study of Turkish Chemistry Undergraduates' Understanding of Entropy

Judith M. Bennett
Department of Educational Studies, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD United Kingdom
Mustafa Sözbilir
Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Kazim Karabekir Education Faculty, Ataturk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey
J. Chem. Educ., 2007, 84 (7), p 1204
DOI: 10.1021/ed084p1204
Publication Date (Web): July 1, 2007

Abstract

This study explores Turkish chemistry undergraduates' understanding of entropy and identifies and classifies their misunderstandings. For this purpose, a diagnostic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews—before and after teaching—were used. Two diagnostic questionnaires were developed and used as pre-tests and post-tests with 91 students enrolled in a physical chemistry course from two different chemistry education departments in two different universities in Turkey. Just after the administration of the tests, 22 pre-interviews and 7 post-interviews were carried out. The misunderstandings identified were categorized into these five broad headings: (i) Defining entropy as "disorder" and considering visual disorder and entropy as synonymous; (ii) Inaccurate connection of entropy to the number of inter-molecular interactions; (iii) Inaccurate connection of entropy of a system and the accompanying entropy changes in its surroundings; (iv) Entropy of the whole system decreases or does not change when a spontaneous change occurs in an isolated system; and (v) Entropy of carbon dioxide is bigger than that of propane or the same at the same temperature. The findings have implications for tertiary-level teaching, suggesting that a substantial review of teaching strategies is needed.

Keywords (Audience):

Upper-Division Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Chemical Education Research

Keywords (Feature):

Chemical Education Research

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Misconceptions / Discrepant Events

Keywords (Subject):

Thermodynamics
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History

  • Received: August 03, 2009

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