41 research outputs found
A Review of Student Difficulties in Upper-Level Quantum Mechanics
Learning advanced physics, in general, is challenging not only due to the
increased mathematical sophistication but also because one must continue to
build on all of the prior knowledge acquired at the introductory and
intermediate levels. In addition, learning quantum mechanics can be especially
challenging because the paradigms of classical mechanics and quantum mechanics
are very different. Here, we review research on student reasoning difficulties
in learning upper-level quantum mechanics and research on students'
problem-solving and metacognitive skills in these courses. Some of these
studies were multi-university investigations. The investigations suggest that
there is large diversity in student performance in upper-level quantum
mechanics regardless of the university, textbook, or instructor and many
students in these courses have not acquired a functional understanding of the
fundamental concepts. The nature of reasoning difficulties in learning quantum
mechanics is analogous to reasoning difficulties found via research in
introductory physics courses. The reasoning difficulties were often due to
over-generalizations of concepts learned in one context to another context
where they are not directly applicable. Reasoning difficulties in
distinguishing between closely related concepts and in making sense of the
formalism of quantum mechanics were common. We conclude with a brief summary of
the research-based approached that take advantage of research on student
difficulties in order to improve teaching and learning of quantum mechanics
Developing an Interactive Tutorial on a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with Single Photons
We are developing a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) on a
Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with single photons to expose upper-level students
in quantum mechanics courses to contemporary applications. The QuILT strives to
help students develop the ability to apply fundamental quantum principles to
physical situations and explore differences between classical and quantum
ideas. The QuILT adapts visualization tools to help students build physical
intuition about quantum phenomena and focuses on helping them integrate
qualitative and quantitative understanding. We also discuss findings from a
preliminary in-class evaluation.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1510.0130
A Framework for Understanding the Patterns of Student Reasoning Difficulties in Quantum Mechanics
Compared with introductory physics, relatively little is known about the
development of expertise in advanced physics courses, especially in the case of
quantum mechanics. Here, we describe a framework for understanding the patterns
of student reasoning difficulties and how students develop expertise in quantum
mechanics. The framework posits that the challenges many students face in
developing expertise in quantum mechanics are analogous to the challenges
introductory students face in developing expertise in introductory classical
mechanics. This framework incorporates both the diversity in upper-level
students' prior preparation, goals, and motivation in general (i.e., the facts
that even in upper-level courses, students may be inadequately prepared, have
unclear goals, and have insufficient motivation to excel) as well as the
"paradigm shift" from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics. The framework
is based on empirical investigations demonstrating that the patterns of
reasoning, problem-solving, and self-monitoring difficulties in quantum
mechanics bear a striking resemblance to those found in introductory classical
mechanics. Examples from research in quantum mechanics and introductory
classical mechanics are discussed to illustrate how the patterns of
difficulties are analogous as students learn to unpack the respective
principles and grasp the formalism in each knowledge domain during the
development of expertise. Embracing such a framework and contemplating the
parallels between the difficulties in these two knowledge domains can enable
researchers to leverage the extensive literature for introductory physics
education research to guide the design of teaching and learning tools for
helping students develop expertise in quantum mechanics
Student difficulties with quantum states while translating state vectors in Dirac notation to wave functions in position and momentum representations
We administered written free-response and multiple-choice questions and
conducted individual interviews to investigate the difficulties that
upper-level undergraduate and graduate students have with quantum states while
translating state vectors in Dirac notation to wave functions in position and
momentum representations. We find that students share common difficulties with
translating a state vector written in Dirac notation to the wave function in
position or momentum representation
Validation and Administration of a Conceptual Survey on the Formalism and Postulates of Quantum Mechanics
We developed and validated a conceptual survey that focuses on the formalism
and postulates of quantum mechanics covered in upper-level undergraduate
quantum mechanics courses. The concepts included in the Quantum Mechanics
Formalism and Postulate Survey (QMFPS) focus on Dirac notation, the Hilbert
space, state vectors, physical observables and their corresponding Hermitian
operators, compatible and incompatible observables, quantum measurement,
time-dependence of quantum states and expectation values, and spin angular
momenta. Here we describe the validation and administration of the survey,
which has been administered to over 400 upper-level undergraduate and graduate
students from six institutions. The QMFPS is valid and reliable for use as a
low-stakes test to measure the effectiveness of instruction in an undergraduate
quantum mechanics course that covers relevant content. The survey can also be
used by instructors to identify student understanding of the formalism and
postulates of quantum mechanics at the beginning and end of a graduate quantum
mechanics course since graduate students are expected to have taken an
undergraduate quantum mechanics course that covers the content included in the
survey. We found that undergraduate students who engaged with
research-validated learning tools performed better than students who did not on
the QMFPS after the first semester of a junior/senior level quantum mechanics
course. In addition, the performance of graduate students on QMFPS after
instruction in the first semester of a core graduate-level quantum mechanics
course was significantly better than the performance of undergraduate students
at the end of the first semester of an undergraduate quantum mechanics course.
A comparison with the base line data on the validated QMFPS presented here can
aid instructors in assessing the effectiveness of their instructional
approaches
Student difficulties with determining expectation values in quantum mechanics
The expectation value of an observable is an important concept in quantum
mechanics. However, upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in physics
have both conceptual and procedural difficulties when determining the
expectation value of physical observables, especially when using Dirac
notation. To investigate these difficulties, we administered free-response and
multiple-choice questions and conducted individual interviews with students.
Here, we discuss the analysis of data on student difficulties when determining
the expectation value
Graduate teaching assistants use different criteria when grading introductory physics vs. quantum mechanics problems
Physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading.
Physics education research suggests that grading practices that place the
burden of proof for explicating the problem solving process on students can
help them develop problem solving skills and learn physics. However, TAs may
not have developed effective grading practices and may grade student solutions
in introductory and advanced courses differently. In the context of a TA
professional development course, we asked TAs to grade student solutions to
introductory physics and quantum mechanics problems and explain why their
grading approaches were different or similar in the two contexts. TAs expected
and rewarded reasoning more frequently in the QM context. Our findings suggest
that these differences may at least partly be due to the TAs not realizing that
grading can serve as a formative assessment tool and also not thinking about
the difficulty of an introductory physics problem from an introductory physics
student's perspective