How Crosscutting Is the Energy Concept within Physics Teaching and Learning

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Review Report

Article title: How crosscutting is the energy concept within physics?

The authors of this manuscript the authors dealt with of the coherence of the energy concept within physics.

Specific comments:

1. The introduction should include the objective of the study. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide a state-of-the-art review of current scholarly literature on different approaches to energy concept in physics teaching and include it in the paper.

2.   The text of the paper does not provide the exact wording of the research questions and working hypotheses.

3.   Chapter 2 should have the following title: “Materials and Methods”. Chapter 3 should be titled as “Results” (see instructions for authors available at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education/instructions).

4.   It is necessary to describe the methodology of the study accurately and in a sufficient detail.

5.   How was the validity and reliability of the obtained data ensured?

6.   The “Discussion” section should be enriched with the results of previous studies. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible. Limitations of the work should be highlighted.

7. The authors should state how the results can be interpreted in terms of the research questions and in perspective of previous studies. Have the results been compared with the literature? Have you found any similarities or discrepancies with previously published data?

8. Study participants (point 4) “Pre-service physics teachers (these were students who had instruction on energy through the systems approach with the inclusion of internal energy changes and with experience in solving problems involving living organisms);” From the above, it is not clear whether they were teachers or students.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

 

Review of

How crosscutting is the energy concept within physics?

 

Energy is one of the crosscutting concepts of the NGSS. The authors pose the question, if students understand energy as a crosscutting concept in physics. To find this out they carried out an empirical research.

 

On the starting point. The authors raise the question of the coherence of the energy concept within physics, but they do not tell us which concept of energy they use. Indeed, physicists do not agree with each other concerning the concept of energy.

 

On the result. The authors' goal is to achieve a concept of energy that is a crosscutting concept in physics. To achieve this goal, they have used two problems, which form the core of the study. The practice of these problems should contribute to the end in view.

This study is presented in section 3, about 10 pages long, which is followed by the final section, 20 lines long. The reader is left with the impression that the research is not over.

It would be important for a physics teacher to know, what this concept of energy that is crosscutting concept in physics consists of, not through the problems, but as a result of the work done with the problems. Indeed, if I have this concept, I can teach it, regardless of the problems addressed in the article. Otherwise, I will have to follow the authors' path through the problems.

Regarding the result there is still a point to be taken into account. There is a part of the literature on energy, which is pertinent to the authors' goal, which has not been taken into account. Planck and Ostwald, Nobel prizewinners in physics and chemistry, respectively, had a crosscutting concept of energy. This calls into question the usefulness of the present article. It would be important to show that the authors' proposal goes beyond what has been presented.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I appreciate the great efforts you have made in response to my previous questions and comments. You have significantly improved the clarity of your writing and addressed most of my concerns.

 

Kind regards,

The Reviewer

Reviewer 2 Report

 

Second review:

The changes the authors made meet my criticism; and I accept the justification given by the authors for what they did not intend to address.

I think the paper can be accepted for publication.