What is the Thing We Call Heat? A Study on Diverse Representations of the Basic Thermal Concepts in and for School Science

Abstract

Heat, like many other scientific concepts, is abstract, counterintuitive and thus difficult for students to understand. As a noun, it is frequently used in everyday life, but its meanings may, however, vary from one situation to another. In the Chinese language, the word for heat, Re, used as a noun, is a completely scientific term. In everyday life, Re means “hot”, “heated” or “to heat”, and students do not start to learn Re as a noun - heat – until in school science. It is thus little wonder that many students, and even adults, encounter difficulties in understanding the scientific concept of heat alongside its everyday multiple uses. Furthermore, heat is confusing and controversial in its own scientific meaning, as illustrated in the history of science. Early scientists for a long time conceived of heat as a basic quality of a body, and later on as a kind of substance, a material fluid, or in terms of an ethereal wave. It was as late as the 19th century that the modern concept of heat became accepted. Bearing this in mind, we should not be too surprised at the difficulties students experience while learning the concepts centered on heat.