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Download Author Version (PDF) Chemistry Education Research and Practice Accepted Manuscript This is an Accepted Manuscript, which has been through the Royal Society of Chemistry peer review process and has been accepted for publication. Accepted Manuscripts are published online shortly after acceptance, before technical editing, formatting and proof reading. Using this free service, authors can make their results available to the community, in citable form, before we publish the edited article. We will replace this Accepted Manuscript with the edited and formatted Advance Article as soon as it is available. You can find more information about Accepted Manuscripts in the Information for Authors. Please note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the text and/or graphics, which may alter content. The journal’s standard Terms & Conditions and the Ethical guidelines still apply. In no event shall the Royal Society of Chemistry be held responsible for any errors or omissions in this Accepted Manuscript or any consequences arising from the use of any information it contains. www.rsc.org/cerp Page 1 of 22 Chemistry Education Research and Practice 1 2 3 AN ONTOLOGICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE 4 FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS IN SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS 5 6 Joaquín Castillo Poblete, Rocío Ogaz Rojas, Cristian Merino Rubilar and Waldo Quiroz Venegas* 7 8 9 Abstract 10 11 Considering the relevance of thermodynamics to the scientific discipline of chemistry and the 12 curriculum of the Western school system, the philosophical system of Mario Bunge, particularly his 13 ontology and epistemology, is used herein to analyze the presentation of the first law of 14 thermodynamics in 15 school and university textbooks. The ontological analysis shows that the Manuscript 15 concepts heat “q” and work “w” are categorized as processes, while the concepts of internal energy 16 “U”, pressure “P”, volume “V” and temperature “T” are categorized as properties. The results reveal 17 that 8 of the 15 textbooks incorrectly present work “w” as a property, while 7 textbooks incorrectly 18 present heat “q” as a property. Furthermore, 3 textbooks present the concept of energy as a 19 property and assign it a merely operational definition as the capacity to do work. The analysis also 20 examined patterns of causality and the mechanism used to explain the connection between the 21 variables of cause and effect in three thermodynamic systems. The results indicated that only 2 22 textbooks contain such a mechanism. Accepted 23 24 25 Introduction 26 27 In the natural sciences, the concepts of theory, hypothesis and law are generally confused by both 28 professional scientists and science teachers (Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, & Schwartz, 2002). Practice 29 One of the most influential philosophies for defining these concepts within the natural sciences is 30 scientific realism, whose principle exponent, according to the journal Science, is Mario Bunge 31 (Michel et al., 2011). One of the most notable features of this philosophy is the fact that it is not and 32 simply epistemological but also logical, ontological, axiological and metaphysical (Bunge, 1974a, 33 1974b; Bunge, 1977, 1979, 1983a, 1983b). 34 35 The proposal defines the concepts of theory, law and hypothesis as follows. A scientific hypothesis 36 is an idea, i.e., a statement, regarding a given material reality, which should have a basis and be 37 empirically verifiable. Supporting evidence will then validate the idea as a scientifically legitimate 38 hypothesis. A law is a subcategory of a hypothesis and identifies a pattern of causality and a proven 39 mechanism that connects the variables of cause and effect. Finally, a scientific theory is a system Research 40 comprising hypotheses logically connected by a relationship of deductibility, wherein the most 41 general hypotheses are known as posits or axioms (Bunge, 2007). 42 Therefore, in this philosophy, the concepts of hypothesis, law and theory are closely linked, not only 43 in how they are formed (epistemology) but also in their natural or material reference points 44 (ontology and metaphysics). The ontology and the materialist metaphysics of this system offer 45 important semantic tools for clarifying scientific concepts for teaching purposes. For example, in 46 2000, Mario Bunge clarified the concept of energy from an epistemological, an ontological and a Education 47 metaphysical perspective. He categorized energy as the only property applicable to all material 48 objects, thereby implying the mutability of reality (Bunge, 2000). 49 50 Using ontology and realist epistemology to analyze scientific concepts, in a previous study, our 51 research group analyzed Boyle’s Law from an ontological perspective, identifying the variables of 52 pressure and volume as properties of a gaseous system, where the volume is the cause and the 53 pressure of the gas is the effect. This perspective is consistent with the proven mechanism of 54 molecular collisions. Analyzing 14 university-level general chemistry books from this perspective 55 showed that 13 of the books contained serious ontological errors, such as omitting the pattern of Chemistry 56 causality or presenting it erroneously, namely by identifying pressure as the cause and volume as 57 the effect (Quiroz & Rubilar, 2015). In a subsequent study, our group analyzed the concept of 58 osmosis and its presentation in university-level biology and chemistry textbooks. The results 59 60 Chemistry Education Research and Practice Page 2 of 22 1 2 3 showed that more than 50% of the books identifies osmosis as a process associated only with the 4 property of concentration, thus reducing it to a mere diffusional process, without mentioning the 5 state of equilibrium and the property of osmotic pressure (Spinelli Barria, Morales, Merino, & Quiroz, 6 2016). 7 8 Many complex concepts can benefit from Bunge’s ontology and metaphysics to ensure their correct 9 presentation. It is clear that the evaluation of Mario Bunge’s systematic philosophy provides an 10 opportunity for science education(Matthews, 2012). However despite its great influence on the 11 philosophy of science, the application of this philosophical system for the analysis of scientific 12 concepts in science education studies has been comparatively minor and limited to a few works of 13 Deleporte about the concept of “specie” in biology (Deleporte, 2012), a Bunge work on the concept 14 of energy(Bunge, 2000) and our previous works about Boyle´s law(Quiroz & Rubilar, 2015)and the Manuscript 15 concept of “Osmosis” (Spinelli Barria et al., 2016). In more general terms, beyond the philosophical 16 system of Mario Bunge, the use of ontology as a tool for the analysis of scientific concepts in 17 science education studies are mostly limited to the work of chi and colleagues about conceptual 18 change and its relationship with ontology (Michelene T. H. Chi, 2008; M. T. H. Chi, Roscoe, Slotta, 19 Roy, & Chase, 2012) . The same problem arises in the case of the use of epistemology for the 20 analysis of scientific laws where the only work we have found in literature is from Kipnis related to 21 Ohm's law(Kipnis, 2009). Considering the core relevance of classical thermodynamics to chemistry 22 as a scientific discipline and the importance of chemistry knowledge in the Western school system, Accepted 23 we deemed it relevant to apply this tool for analyzing the presentation of these concepts in science 24 textbooks. Accordingly, this study aims to ontologically and epistemologically analyze the 25 presentation of the first law of thermodynamics in chemistry textbooks used in universities and 26 schools. 27 28 Practice 29 Classical Thermodynamics 30 31 Logically and epistemologically, classical thermodynamics is a theory comprising four general and 32 scientific hypotheses, or axioms, all of which are laws. The first two laws are known as the zero th 33 and the first laws and are mentioned in most general chemistry textbooks and the Chilean 34 secondary education system. 35 36 To analyze the presentation of these laws in scientific and school textbooks, we must first establish 37 their ontology, i.e., the material references of their concepts, and their patterns of causality. 38 th The zero law of thermodynamics states that a thermodynamic property called temperature exists. 39 Research This law defines the state of thermal equilibrium as the point at which the temperatures of the two 40 systems in contact are identical (Engel et al., 2007). The first law defines a second property of a 41 system, namely internal energy. Depending on the conditions, changes in internal energy (∆U) can 42 occur from or to the environment through the processes of heat and/or work. Mathematically, these 43 changes are presented in the following way in most textbooks, as shown in Equation 1. 44 45 ∆U = q + w (1) 46 47 where “q” and “w” are the concepts of heat and work, respectively. Education 48 49 50 The present study aims to visualize how the first law of thermodynamics is presented in university 51 and school textbooks, while, if possible, discerning whether the law is presented with the correct 52 pattern of causality and the mechanism responsible for generating a particular effect. It is also 53 important in this study to identify the ontological definition attributed to this law and how concepts 54 associated with it are used, such as internal energy, heat, work, volume, pressure and temperature. 55 Considering the universal application of this law, our analysis focuses on perfect gases and Chemistry 56 reversible processes, which are the most common systems used to develop and explain this law in 57 chemistry textbooks. 58 59 60 Page 3 of 22 Chemistry Education Research and Practice 1 2 3 4 5 Ontological classification of the concepts of internal energy, 6 7 temperature, heat and work 8 9 Mario Bunge’s philosophy defines the following five ontological categories: “things or material 10 objects”, “properties”, “processes”, “events” and “states” (Bunge, 1977).
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