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Secondary school pupils' concepts of energy were probed by clinical interviews and a multiple choice survey administered to 84 Alberta students. Preliminary information was gathered from curriculum documents, misconceptions literature and eight preliminary interviews. Both the interviews and the written survey were based on the interview-about-intances approach and used multiple-choice questions with free-response justification of answers. The wide range of alternative conceptions that were expressed paralleled findings of similar studies elsewhere. Most descriptions of energy were framed in substantive or ambiguous terms. Energy was frequently associated with living things, movement, and task performance. It was confused with concepts of heat, force, and pressure. Changes in physical systems were seen variously as consuming energy or as producing it upon demand. Aspects of a scientific conception were more evident among senior physics students, but differences between classes and grade levels did not generally reach statistical significance. Very few responses involved notions of energy as an abstract or conserved quantity. References to energy degradation or dissipation during changes were infrequent in interviews, survey responses, and curriculum documents. Subjects tended to choose similar responses on parallel interview and survey quesitions. Interview subjects showed evidence of preferred conceptual orientations towards a variety of situations, although their survey responses showed no parallel consistency. Conflicting evidence was obtained regarding the spontaneous use of energy-based descriptions of physical situations. Findings were interpreted from a constructivist stance, and implications for the study and teaching of specific topics were drawn. In addition, results suggested the efficacy of appropriate multiple choice instruments as an alternative to clinical interviews in the investigation of alternative conceptions. / xi, 234 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-106).

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Interdepartmental Physical Science, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 28, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-89). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 57).

Inaug.-diss.--Halle. / Vita. Another ed. published as a part of the author's memoir "Der kausalbegriff in der neueren philosophie und in den naturwissenschaften von Hume bis Robert Mayer" in: "Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche philosophie, 24.-25. jahrgang, 1900-01."

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-49). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Clinical interviews to explore children's beliefs about the concept of force were carried out with 32 children (18 boys, 14 girls), whose ages ranged from 6 to 14 years. Three tasks were used to investigate their beliefs about the action of a force, action and reaction, equilibrium of forces, and composition of forces. A conceptual profile was constructed on the aspects of force covered in the tasks. This conceptual profile was then used to categorize the children's beliefs which were uncovered in the interviews. It was found that the interview methodology was a feasible approach for an exploratory and descriptive study of students' beliefs about a particular concept and that the children in the sample had a set of typical a priori beliefs about force which they used to account for the different experimental situations. This set of beliefs was subsequently categorized in three levels of abstraction to bring to light the possible patterns of these beliefs. The children's ideas found in the study and the categorization of these into levels of abstraction could be useful for the curriculum developer and particularly for the teacher in planning teaching strategies. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate