Abstract Learning progressions (LPs) are widely used in science education to describe how students develop understanding of core concepts, yet research on energy learning progressions (ELPs) has yielded inconsistent findings. This review argues that such inconsistency cannot be explained solely by differences in instruments or samples, but should also be understood through the instruction–assessment chain. Drawing on a synthesis of prior research together with textbook materials from China, the United States, and Germany, the paper advances the interpretive claim that current energy instruction and ELP-based assessment together form a terminology-centered rather than mechanism-centered closed loop. Within this loop, instruction and assessment are organized primarily around descriptive categories such as forms, transfer, transformation, dissipation, and conservation, while work is not systematically positioned as the mechanistic core for explaining energy change. To address this problem, the paper argues for re-centering energy learning progressions on the work–energy relation and for reorganizing energy knowledge into a coherent causal chain linking energy terms, change of energy, and conservation of energy. This reinterpretation offers a mechanism-oriented direction for future assessment and instruction, while also requiring further empirical validation across contexts and educational levels.
[More...]
