Refined Characterization of Student Perspectives on Quantum Physics

The perspectives of introductory classical physics students can often negatively influence how those students later interpret quantum phenomena when taking an introductory course in modern physics. A detailed exploration of student perspectives on the interpretation of quantum physics is needed, both to characterize student understanding of physics concepts, and to inform how we might teach traditional content. Our previous investigations of student perspectives on quantum physics have indicated they can be highly nuanced, and may vary both within and across contexts. In order to better understand the contextual and often seemingly contradictory stances of students on matters of interpretation, we interviewed 19 students from four introductory modern physics courses taught at the University of Colorado. We find that students have attitudes and opinions that often parallel the stances of expert physicists when arguing for their favored interpretations of quantum mechanics, allowing for more nuanced characterizations of student perspectives in terms of three key interpretive themes. We present a framework for characterizing student perspectives on quantum mechanics, and demonstrate its utility in interpreting the sometimes-contradictory nature of student responses to previous surveys. We further find that students most often vacillate in their responses when what makes intuitive sense to them is not in agreement with what they consider to be a correct response, underscoring the need to distinguish between the personal and the public perspectives of introductory modern physics students.Comment: 24 pages, 31 references, 1 Appendix (5 pages

Interpretive Themes in Quantum Physics: Curriculum Development and Outcomes

A common learning goal for modern physics instructors is for students to recognize a difference between the experimental uncertainty of classical physics and the fundamental uncertainty of quantum mechanics. Our prior work has shown that student perspectives on the physical interpretation of quantum mechanics can be characterized, and are differentially influenced by the myriad ways instructors approach interpretive themes in their introductory courses. We report how a transformed modern physics curriculum (recently implemented at the University of Colorado) has positively impacted student perspectives on quantum physics, by making questions of classical and quantum reality a central theme of the course, but also by making the beliefs of students (and not just those of scientists) an explicit topic of discussion.Comment: Supporting materials available at http://tinyurl.com/baily-dissertatio

Teaching Quantum Interpretations: Revisiting the goals and practices of introductory quantum physics courses

Most introductory quantum physics instructors would agree that transitioning students from classical to quantum thinking is an important learning goal, but may disagree on whether or how this can be accomplished. Although (and perhaps because) physicists have long debated the physical interpretation of quantum theory, many instructors choose to avoid emphasizing interpretive themes; or they discuss the views of scientists in their classrooms, but do not adequately attend to student interpretations. In this synthesis and extension of prior work, we demonstrate: (1) instructors vary in their approaches to teaching interpretive themes; (2) different instructional approaches have differential impacts on student thinking; and (3) when student interpretations go unattended, they often develop their own (sometimes scientifically undesirable) views. We introduce here a new modern physics curriculum that explicitly attends to student interpretations, and provide evidence-based arguments that doing so helps them to develop more consistent interpretations of quantum phenomena, more sophisticated views of uncertainty, and greater interest in quantum physics.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; submitted to PRST-PER: Focused Collection on Upper-Division PER. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1409.849

Interpretation in Quantum Physics as Hidden Curriculum

Prior research has demonstrated how the realist perspectives of classical physics students can translate into specific beliefs about quantum phenomena when taking an introductory modern physics course. Student beliefs regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics often vary by context, and are most often in alignment with instructional goals in topic areas where instructors are explicit in promoting a particular perspective. Moreover, students are more likely to maintain realist perspectives in topic areas where instructors are less explicit in addressing interpretive themes, thereby making such issues part of a hidden curriculum. We discuss various approaches to addressing student perspectives and interpretive themes in a modern physics course, and explore the associated impacts on student thinking

StakeNet: using social networks to analyse the stakeholders of large-scale software projects

Many software projects fail because they overlook stakeholders or involve the wrong representatives of significant groups. Unfortunately, existing methods in stakeholder analysis are likely to omit stakeholders, and consider all stakeholders as equally influential. To identify and prioritise stakeholders, we have developed StakeNet, which consists of three main steps: identify stakeholders and ask them to recommend other stakeholders and stakeholder roles, build a social network whose nodes are stakeholders and links are recommendations, and prioritise stakeholders using a variety of social network measures. To evaluate StakeNet, we conducted one of the first empirical studies of requirements stakeholders on a software project for a 30,000-user system. Using the data collected from surveying and interviewing 68 stakeholders, we show that StakeNet identifies stakeholders and their roles with high recall, and accurately prioritises them. StakeNet uncovers a critical stakeholder role overlooked in the project, whose omission significantly impacted project success

StakeSource: harnessing the power of crowdsourcing and social networks in stakeholder analysis

Projects often fail because they overlook stakeholders. Unfortunately, existing stakeholder analysis tools only capture stakeholders' information, relying on experts to manually identify them. StakeSource is a web-based tool that automates stakeholder analysis. It "crowdsources" the stakeholders themselves for recommendations about other stakeholders and aggregates their answers using social network analysis

Consistency analysis of Kaluza-Klein geometric sigma models

Geometric sigma models are purely geometric theories of scalar fields coupled to gravity. Geometrically, these scalars represent the very coordinates of space-time, and, as such, can be gauged away. A particular theory is built over a given metric field configuration which becomes the vacuum of the theory. Kaluza-Klein theories of the kind have been shown to be free of the classical cosmological constant problem, and to give massless gauge fields after dimensional reduction. In this paper, the consistency of dimensional reduction, as well as the stability of the internal excitations, are analyzed. Choosing the internal space in the form of a group manifold, one meets no inconsistencies in the dimensional reduction procedure. As an example, the SO(n) groups are analyzed, with the result that the mass matrix of the internal excitations necessarily possesses negative modes. In the case of coset spaces, the consistency of dimensional reduction rules out all but the stable mode, although the full vacuum stability remains an open problem.Comment: 13 pages, RevTe

Representations of U(1,q) and Constructive Quaternion Tensor Products

The representation theory of the group U(1,q) is discussed in detail because of its possible application in a quaternion version of the Salam-Weinberg theory. As a consequence, from purely group theoretical arguments we demonstrate that the eigenvalues must be right-eigenvalues and that the only consistent scalar products are the complex ones. We also define an explicit quaternion tensor product which leads to a set of additional group representations for integer ``spin''.Comment: 28 pages, Latex, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Lecce INFN-Sezione di Lecc