Through many years of teaching Quantum Mechanics in Algerian universities, we have noticed that students face great obstacles in understanding the meaning of the basic concepts of this theory, such as the Wave Function, the Uncertainly Principle, the Superposition Principle and the Complementarity Principle. We believe that these obstacles rise due to the influence of basic concepts in Classical Mechanics which students studied for many years before studying Quantum Mechanics. For example, in Classical Mechanics, the concept of wave and the concept of corpuscle refer to different things, while in Quantum Mechanics both concepts refer to the same thing, namely a "quantum particle". In order to study the problem, a questionnaire sheet was presented to concerned students third-year (undergraduate physics students) before they studied the subject and after studying it. We note that these third-year students had had, as an introduction, a deep discussion of the meaning of quantum mechanical concepts for about one hour and a half a week during one month. To compare the results and show the importance of the epistemological and educational aspects, we presented again the same questionnaire to fifth-year physics students (B.Sc degree). We mention that the latter learned Quantum Mechanics without an epistemological introduction of the basic quantum mechanical concepts. Before giving our epistemological and didactical analysis of the results, we give a brief review of a previous didactical study related to the subject made by other authors. We conclude by giving some suggestions which we think are necessary in teaching Quantum Mechanics.
Through many years of teaching Quantum Mechanics in Algerian universities, we have noticed that students face great obstacles in understanding the meaning of the basic concepts of this theory, such as the Wave Function, the Uncertainly Principle, the Superposition Principle and the Complementarity Principle. We believe that these obstacles rise due to the influence of basic concepts in Classical Mechanics which students studied for many years before studying Quantum Mechanics. For example, in Classical Mechanics, the concept of wave and the concept of corpuscle refer to different things, while in Quantum Mechanics both concepts refer to the same thing, namely a "quantum particle". In order to study the problem, a questionnaire sheet was presented to concerned students third-year (undergraduate physics students) before they studied the subject and after studying it. We note that these third-year students had had, as an introduction, a deep discussion of the meaning of quantum mechanical concepts for about one hour and a half a week during one month. To compare the results and show the importance of the epistemological and educational aspects, we presented again the same questionnaire to fifth-year physics students (B.Sc degree). We mention that the latter learned Quantum Mechanics without an epistemological introduction of the basic quantum mechanical concepts. Before giving our epistemological and didactical analysis of the results, we give a brief review of a previous didactical study related to the subject made by other authors. We conclude by giving some suggestions which we think are necessary in teaching Quantum Mechanics.
The most important basic aspect of Quantum Mechanics description is the wave, but there are many different interpretations between different schools and scientists about the reality of this wave. Till now there are more than thirteen important schools of interpretation for the basic concepts of quantum mechanics. In the case of the wave, some interpretations consider it as a real wave, while others consider it as only a mathematics toll. Through our experience in teaching quantum theory, we conclude that teaching quantum mechanics is not only just deriving beautiful and maybe logical equations and relations related to the subject. We believe that each step of deriving those equations or relations should be followed by deep discussions of concepts and meanings. Because of the students difficulty for understand the wave concept as an example of general basic concepts of quantum mechanics. For this purpose and in order to clarify and focus on the problematic, a questionnaire sheet was presented to homogenous sample of Algerian third year physics students related to the subject. But we concluded from the results of students’ survey, that the basic concepts of quantum mechanics should have a profound educational revision.
Not only is Quantum Mechanics (QM) conceptually rich, it is also a theory that physics students have found abstract and technically formidable. Nevertheless, compared to other classical topics of physics, university students’ understanding of QM has received minimal attention in the physics education literature. The principal purpose of this study was to characterize the variation in the ways that undergraduate physics students depict the basic concepts of QM and to extrapolate the results to scaffold possible changes to instructional practices at the university that provided the context for the study. In so doing, an adaptation of a developmental phenomenographic perspective was chosen. Empirically, the study was approached through in-depth interviews with 35 physics students from two Ethiopian governmental universities after they had been exposed to the traditional QM course for one-third of a semester. Interview responses were analyzed using phenomenographic approach where a picture of students’ depictions was established for each quantum concept by expounding the given responses. For each basic quantum concept addressed, the structure of the description categories was separately constructed, and overall, it was found that naive, quasi-classical ontology and/or variants of classical ways of visualization are dominant in students’ responses. For example, it was found that students’ depictions of the photon concept could be described with three distinct categories of description, which are (a) classical intuitive description, (b) mixed model description and (c) quasi-quantum model description. Similarly, the findings revealed that it is possible to establish three qualitatively different categories of description to picture students’ depictions of matter waves, namely, (a) classical and trajectory-based description, (b) an intricate blend of classical and quantum description and (c) incipient quantum model description. Likewise, it was found that students’ depictions of uncertainty principle can be described as: (a) uncertainty as classical ignorance, (b) uncertainty as measurement disturbance and (c) uncertainty as a quasi-quantum principle. \nWith regard to learning QM, the categories of description made clear several issues: most students did not have enough knowledge to depict the basic concepts of QM properly; they were influenced by the perspective of classical physics and their perceptions in making explanations about QM; and they also applied mixed ideas, one based on their classical model and the other from newly introduced QM. These results are also supported by the findings of previous studies in similar domains. Findings from the study were used to guide the design of multiple representations-based instructions and interactive learning tutorials on the conceptual aspects of QM that has been shown to address specific difficulties identified in the study. Theoretical and practical implications of the study, as well as potential future considerations are drawn.
Quantum mechanics (QM) has taken on a paradigmatic role in how physics describes and builds new knowledge about the world. It also has a growing role in our society thanks to recent and rapid developments in the field of new quantum technologies. These are becoming increasingly important in our society, in the world of work and which will also decisively influence future socio-economic choices. Also for this reason QM has an increasing role in the education of young people and has been introduced in many different ways also in secondary school in all continents. The change in the theoretical and cultural frame has profound implications that are often not intuitive, which involve the appropriation of a specific way of thinking. Neither macroscopic phenomenology, nor intuition help, because there is no simple evidence of how quantum objects must be thought to interpret that unobservable microscopic world and for which we must enter another interpretative paradigm even if we want to limit ourselves to describe it. PER has carried out several studies on the learning of key concepts, on the learning nodes, the ways of reasoning, the difficulties of the students, their spontaneous ideas, according to two main strands: above all at university level, conceptual difficulties and misunderstandings often linked to a formal approach, which, moreover, underpins the very nature of the entities involved; at secondary school level in relation to how students acquire a quantum view of phenomena on the basis of specific approaches adopted to address QM. In particular, a vast literature, which has increased considerably and especially in relatively recent times, has studied how university students deal with certain concepts such as that of state, superposition, measurement in quantum mechanics rather than how quantum quantities evolve over time. These studies are based on the use of questionnaires that allow to explore different levels: the verbal, formal and representative one, with different representations (eg. wave function, Dirac notation), rather than different representative modes (eg. Graphs of probability amplitudes, or probability distributions). At the secondary school level, the most important studies on student learning were instead conducted evaluating the educational impact and outlining the learning paths of students who had followed formative activities based on differentiated innovative research-based educational paths. In particular, the learning outcomes were compared to those activated by proposals based on the historical reconstruction approach of quantum physics. This approach is privileged in traditional curricula and school texts and consequently in the ways of teachers approaching the topic. It was developed in schools with a narrative or descriptive dimension of solutions based on old physics of quanta for the interpretation of phenomena not explained by classical physics. The innovative approaches instead make use of contexts whose formal treatment is simple (quantum properties described in a two-state space such as polarization or spin) with the aid of simulations that compensate for the problem of students” limited mathematical-formal skills, avoiding any historical reference. In particular, there is a significant difference between the survey tools and the survey contexts in the high school environment compared to surveys conducted with university students. This paper presents a review of the research literature, focusing in particular on the learning processes of secondary school students and outlining how research perspectives have evolved.
Abstract Teaching and learning of quantum physics at secondary level is an active field of research. One important challenge is finding ways to promote understanding of quantum concepts without the mathematical formalism that is embedded in quantum mechanics but unavailable on the secondary level. We investigated Norwegian secondary students’ (N = 291) descriptions of the wave nature of quantum particles and the uncertainty principle, as expressed during work with learning resources using a sociocultural approach emphasizing history, philosophy, and nature of science aspects. Responses from university students (N = 40) given after a formalism-based course in quantum physics were included for comparison. Themes were identified using thematic analysis and analyzed from the perspective of pedagogical link-making, seeing different themes as representing different levels of explanations of the concepts (phenomenological, qualitative, mathematical). The most dominant theme in descriptions of particle wave nature was that particles exhibit wave behavior in experiments, while referring to the mathematical description of particles by wave functions was a less prominent theme, even among university students. Two uncertainty principle themes were found: uncertainty as inability to measure pairs of variables precisely, and uncertainty as innate blurriness in nature. Largely missing from descriptions of both concepts were meaningful links between different levels of explanations. Based on the results, we discuss ways forward for teaching particle wave nature and uncertainty in secondary education.
This study addresses questions about particle physics that focus on the nature of electrons. Speculations as to whether they are more like particles or waves or like neither illustrate the difficulties with which students are confronted when trying to incorporate the concepts of quantum physics into their overall conceptual framework. Such questions illustrate the difficulties in using analogies taken from ordinary experience, described mostly by classical models, in explaining the subatomic world. Data for this study were obtained from a semi-structured questionnaire completed by physics students (N=57). The questionnaire consisted of open and closed questions, drawings of particular situations, and attitude scales. Findings indicate that students are inclined to incorporate the new quantum phenomena into the older mechanistic conceptions and that most students are not epistemologically aware that quantum physics constitutes a new paradigm. Contains 16 references. (Author/DDR) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Paper presented at the Singapore Educational Research Association 9th Annual Conference, 22-24 November 1995. Advanced level Physics students' conceptions of Quantum Physics Azam Mashhadi Affiliation: Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, 15 Norham Gardens, Oxford OX2 6PY, United Kingdom. Address for correspondence: Block 16 #07-125, Hougang Avenue 3, Republic of Singapore 530016 e-mail: chrizam@pacific.net.sg Abstract ...I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics ....do not keep saying to yourself, if you possibly can avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that. Richard Feynman (1967: 129)..I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics ....do not keep saying to yourself, if you possibly can avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain', into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that. Richard Feynman (1967: 129) Especially over the last fifteen years there has been considerable research interest in the student's perceptions of phenomena in such areas as energy, motion, the particulate nature of matter, electricity, and light. However, ninety years after the genesis of Quantum Physics significant research on students' understanding of such revolutionary phenomena is only beginning to emerge. What are electrons really like? Are they like particles or waves? Are they like both particles and waves, or like neither? These questions illustrate the psychological difficulties with which students are confronted when trying to incorporate the concepts of Quantum Physics into their over-all conceptual framework. They also illustrate the difficulties in using analogies taken from ordinary experience (i.e. essentially classical models) to 'explain' the subatomic world. In its predictive abilities Quantum Theory is the most successful physical theory that has ever been conceptualised, and forms the basis of high technology industries. However Einstein once remarked that Quantum Theory reminded him of 'the system of delusions of an exceedingly intelligent paranoiac, concocted of incoherent elements of thought.' (In Arthur Fine, 1986). Following a review of previous research the initial findings of a study investigating students' understanding of quantum phenomena is presented. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND ; DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL BEEN .RANT .D TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 2 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement yeCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as eived from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 1
Quantum mechanics is generally an abstract theory that challenges intuition since it cannot be understood using ordinary experiences. Quantum tunneling is one of the topics which is more counterintuitive and challenges students' conceptual understanding. The study was aimed at investigating if final year undergraduate quantum mechanics students have alternative conceptions regarding quantum tunneling phenomena after a full course of instruction. In this study, students’ alternative conceptions are referred to as any student ideas related to the incorrect belief of scientific principles. Using the deep structured interviews involving 36 students who were registered in a quantum physics course from the University of Malawi, we found that some students hold on to the idea that the energy of a quantum tunneling electron is lost, the wave function graph depicts the physical wave, and the “potential step,” and “barrier” means a physical object/barrier. The study further established that the possible sources of these alternative conceptions emanated from students’ experience with classical tunneling / classical mechanics, quantum mechanics lecturer notes, and previous quantum mechanics lessons. The findings of this study further portray that traditional pedagogy has its limitation in facilitating students' comprehension of quantum tunneling. We recommend that further research into the design of instructional technology for quantum physics should consider these students' alternative conceptions when designing visual, interactive, and mental models, which may help establish students' conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics.