We review previous research on the teaching and learning of thermodynamics in upper-level, undergraduate settings. As chemistry education researchers we use physical chemistry as a context for understanding the literature. During our synthesis four themes of research emerged: factors that influence student success in learning thermodynamics, understanding thermodynamics through mathematical concepts and representations, student reasoning using the particulate nature of matter, and students' alternative thermodynamic conceptions. We also draw from literature in physics education research, engineering education research, and research on undergraduate mathematics education communities to widen our perspective on the teaching and learning of thermodynamics across disciplines. Following our presentation of studies, we discuss gaps in the literature and directions for new research in line with the recommendations of the National Research Council's (2012) recent report on Discipline-Based Education Research. We also discuss implications for practice which we hope will provide increased pedagogical support for teaching thermodynamics in upper-level, undergraduate settings, especially physical chemistry.

Chemical kinetics is a highly quantitative content area that involves the use of multiple mathematical representations to model processes and is a context that is under-investigated in the literature. This qualitative study explored undergraduate student integration of chemistry and mathematics during problem solving in the context of chemical kinetics. Using semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to make their reasoning and thinking explicit as they described provided equations and as they worked though chemical kinetics problems. Here we describe the results from our study, which included thirty-six general chemistry students, five physical chemistry students, and three chemical engineering students. Analysis and findings are framed in terms of blended processing, a theory from cognitive science that characterizes human knowledge integration. Themes emerged relating to contexts that were commonly discussed when blending occurred. Variation in the depth and directionality of blending was also observed and characterized. Results provide implications for supporting student problem solving and the modeling of chemical processes.