Students' Conceptual Understanding of Quantum Physics at College

Sungmin IM, Jae-Gyung KIM

Wouter van Joolingen, Kim Krijtenburg-Lewerissa

Bayram Akarsu

Berit Bungum, Carl Angell, Cathrine W. Tellefsen +1 more

Ting Zhang, Wei Wu, Shihai SUN

During the teaching process, if the teacher could take the frontier application of science and technology as the traction, explain the principles of cutting-edge scientific and technological progress in the language of college physics, and shorten the distance between basic courses and cutting-edge applications, the students' interest in learning physics will be promoted and their understanding of basic physics principles will be deepen. Taking quantum key distribution as an example, this paper explains the basic principle of the classical BB84 scheme with the polarization content in college physics, and expounds the actual implementation of this scheme, aiming to show that there is a considerable distance between the theoretical scheme and the actual implementation. In order to stimulate students' interest and enthusiasm for active exploration, the latest research progress and current main research directions in the field of quantum communication are also introduced. This is a pioneering attempt to bridge the fundamental physics theory and frontier technolies, which is worth promoting in college physics teaching in the context of emerging engineering education.

Kristóf Tóth, Sergej Faletič, Marisa Michelini +6 more

With the rise of quantum computing, interest has grown in using two-state quantum systems (qubits) at the secondary level to foster students’ conceptual understanding. Quantum measurement, in particular, is central to quantum theory and its accurate conceptualization by students is crucial for grasping fundamental quantum principles. However, instructional methods typically make use of different contexts (i.e., different two-state systems), significantly affecting students’ conceptual development in quantum physics. In this paper, we report findings from a cluster-randomized field trial involving 181 students taught through three inquiry-based, two-state approaches: the which-path-encoded single-photon, the polarization, and the double-well potential approach. All three approaches supported students’ conceptual development, yet students taught using photon polarization and the double-well potential significantly outperformed those participating in a course following the which-path-encoded single-photon approach. Our findings indicate that students participating in the which-path-encoded single-photon approach often retain mixed-thinking frameworks, whereas those taught with photon polarization or the double-well potential approaches were more likely to develop toward quantum thinking. Thus, our findings underpin how influential the choice of (experimental) context is on students’ conceptual development (also) in quantum physics.