Children's conceptions of heat and temperature

Abstract

If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, 1 would say this:The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly[ I , p vi]. IntroductionWith knowledge of what the learner brings to an instructional setting recognized as such a vital component in planning educational programs, it should have become an important stimulus to educational research. One area where this has been true in both science education and other fields has been the research which uses as a starting point Piaget's perspective on intellectual development.* Such research into reasoning and logical skills is important and has useful educational applications. But another aspect of what the learner brings to the classroom has not received much attention recently-that is the substance of the actual beliefs and concepts held by children.+ Piaget refers to this distinction as physical or experiential knowledge as contrasted with operational or logico-mathematical knowledge[ I 11.The absence of certain logical structures may place certain constraints upon the ability of children to develop reasoned arguments or understand more abstract and formalized concepts. However, it must not be forgotten that physical or conceptual knowledge is the substance of our intellectual repertoire that is used to communicate thoughts and ideas to others. Furthermore, it is the principal subject of both classroom and scientific discourse. It follows then that the substance of children's thinking is an important area of inquiry. The ProblemThis paper is concerned with the substantive aspects of children's thinking about heat and temperature. It addresses two issues in this regard. First it attempts to illustrate one * The recent issues of Science Educution and thc Joirrr~ul o/ Kewuri~h itr Science Teachittg abound with rcxarch reports and position papers outlining rcccnt developments in thih area. t There arc at least two notable exceptions to this claim. The studies carried out by: Easley. Witz, and their collcagues at the University of Illinois, (e.g.. Albert(21, Driver[3], Golshan[4], Triplett[S], and Witz and L%sley[6]); and those of Novak and his colleagues at Cornell University (e.g.. Hibband and Novak[7], McClclland[X], Novak[9], and Nussbaum and Novak[lO]). Scicnce Education 6 3 ( 2 ) : 221 -230 (1979) ic, I979 John Wiley &Sons, Inc.

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