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[This paper is part of the Focused Collection in Investigating and Improving Quantum Education through Research.] Instruction in quantum mechanics is becoming increasingly important as the field is not only a key part of modern physics research but is also important for emerging technologies. However, many students regard quantum mechanics as a particularly challenging subject, in part because it is considered very mathematical and abstract. One potential way to help students understand and contextualize unintuitive quantum ideas is to provide them opportunities to work with physical apparatus demonstrating these phenomena. In order to understand how working with quantum experiments affects students’ reasoning, we performed think-aloud lab sessions with two pairs of students as they worked through a sequence of quantum optics experiments that demonstrated particle-wave duality of photons. Analyzing the in-the-moment student thinking allowed us to identify the resources students activated while reasoning through the experimental evidence of single-photon interference, as well as student ideas about what parts of the experiments were quantum versus classical. This work will aid instructors in helping their students construct an understanding of these topics from their own ideas and motivate future investigations into the use of hands-on opportunities to facilitate student learning about quantum mechanics. Published by the American Physical Society2024
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Student conceptual resources for understanding electric circuits
Physics Education Research has a rich history of identifying common student ideas about specific physics topics. In the context of electric circuits, existing research on students’ ideas has primarily focused on misconceptions, misunderstandings, and difficulties. In this paper, we take a resource-oriented approach to identifying common student ideas about circuits by characterizing ideas we see as generative “seeds of science” that could form the basis of more sophisticated understandings. Based on our analysis of 1557 university physics student responses to five conceptual questions, we identify four common resources for understanding circuits. Published by the American Physical Society2024
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- Award ID(s):
- 1914603
- PAR ID:
- 10659152
- Publisher / Repository:
- Physical Review Physics Education Research
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Physics Education Research
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2469-9896
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.20.020128
