‘Some physicists have pointed out that we do not know what energy is. If there is no clear idea of energy,
teaching the concept must be a problem. There has been much criticism concerning explanations of energy in
textbooks and research literature about students´ misconceptions is ample.’ (Coelho 2009)
As pointed out by Duit and Haeussler (1994) and Yuenyoung and Yuenyoung (2007), among the four major
ideas of energy, which are: 1) energy transformation; 2) energy transport; 3) energy conservation; and 4) energy
degradation, energy degradation is usually neglected in school. Duit and Haeussler also emphasized the
important of including energy degradation in school science teaching:
‘First, energy and entropy are closely related to one another in science… Secondly, the conversation idea
will become understandable for students only if the degradation aspect is also given attention… Thirdly, the
degradation aspect is a key issue in STS approaches…’ (Duit and Haeussler 1994)
To understand energy degradation, comprehensive understanding of heat, especially the second law of
thermodynamic and the concept of entropy, plays an essential role. In Vietnamese Physics textbook, heat plays a
very important role. In grade 8 textbook, the second chapter of the total two chapters is about heat. In grade 10
textbook, with total 7 chapters, there are 3 chapters about heat. This study aims to use history of heat and related
concepts to develop students’ understanding of the nature of science through an explicit approach. There is no
need to demonstrate the effectiveness of the historical and explicit - reflective approach anymore as plenty of
scholars studied on this as noted previously. Instead, we want to provide Physics teachers in general and
Vietnamese teachers in particular, some practicing ideas in teaching this important domain knowledge of
Physics. This study also provided an insight into the nature of science presented through the history of Physics
in a developing country’s, typically Vietnamese, Physics textbooks.