A highly important paper is by Finch (1977). He justifies the benefits of teaching
transformations at lower secondary school level:
But now I can get real understanding by teaching in the first year the
interconvertibility of heat, light, sound, movement and electricity, without
making any reference to work. Ibid., p118
Historically, this paper came as a reaction against centralising energy around the ‘work’
definition. Finch argues for making no, single form of energy more superior to any other.
‘Work’ had attained its status due to the fact it could be easily measured. Finch
sarcastically postulates centralising energy around work is no more logical than centring it
around the production of heat or electricity – an issue later discussed by Duit (1984a). In
essence, Finch wants energy to be centralised around the fact of its interconvertibility.
This way, not all the energy forms need to be taught at once – one could start with forms
of energy that children already know e.g. electricity. Decentralising energy in this manner
thus takes away the need to further abstract into the superordinate forms of kinetic and
potential until a later stage. He also argues that by leaving the work definition until later,
children would not need to be confused by the paradox created by asserting that ‘evenly
spread heat’ is a form of energy but it cannot do work ‘without Maxwell’s demon’ (an
issue later addressed with Ogborn’s, 1986 ‘exergy’).
Duit (1984b) makes a clear distinction between energy transfers and transformations. His
research shows that there is often a failure in pupils to differentiate between storage forms
(potential energies here) and transfer forms (energy transfer mechanisms here).
Ellse’s (1988) ‘Transferring not transforming energy’ is considered seminal. This is an oft
quoted rejection of energy forms and energy transformations, and an assertion of the
energy transfer model. He states that work being done was not due to a transformation of
energy from one form to another but a transfer of energy from one object, place or system
to another. Mechanical ‘working’ as a process is preferred to ‘work’ as a physical quantity
being transferred. This is reinforced with the example of a mass pulling another on a
pulley – energy is transferred from one to another, one mass was working on the other
but…
If we tell pupils to look for energy transformation when work is done, we
invite them to think wrongly. Ibid., p430
Further refuting of energy transformations came in considering dynamic steady state
situations. The situation of a blunt drill was not to be explained as ‘electrical energy →
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