Student Understanding of Thermal Physics

Abstract

This chapter provides a review and summary of existing work on student understanding of thermal physics. The topic of thermal physics is one that can be encountered by students at many levels and in many different disciplines. The focus is Physics Education Research (PER), i.e., studies on physics courses with data (qualitative and/or quantitative) on student understanding. This includes primarily undergraduate level physics courses, with brief mention of some studies with graduate students and university faculty. The large body of work on student understanding in younger students is mentioned only briefly. We also consider briefly work in other disciplines in which thermal and statistical physics might be taught, notably chemistry and engineering. The focus is on thermal physics and not the study of energy more generally, simply to limit and focus the scope of the chapter.