The background to this thesis is the παιδέια , the education. To educate is a dialecti- cal process that moves from an abstract line of thought, through scientifically designed techniques, into concrete action; and vice versa. We believe that educating today means enabling teachers first and their students second, to be able to read and interpret the complexity of phenomena, to teach them a model for observing this complexity, describing it, analyzing it and, finally, making it their own. In this thesis, we attempt to make sense of these needs by describing an integrated and multidisciplinary pathway, whose diagram- matic language pushes towards the search for a universal approach to science.
An initial educational contribution is thus made to the understanding of the dialectic between disciplines: theoretical physics, experimental physics, computer science, mathe- matics and mathematical logic are presented in their mutual influence, in an attempt to clarify the informational viewpoint on modern physics. The search for this dialectic for educational purposes is, in our opinion, the most significant contribution of the present work.
To address this issue, we sought to build a community of practice on the topics of the second quantum revolution. Guided by the Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER), we built a first course for teacher professional development that would enable teachers to be introduced to quantum computation and quantum communication. The emergence and development of quantum technologies provides the impetus for a deep conceptual change: “a paradigm shift from quantum theory as a theory of microscopic matter to quantum theory as a framework for technological applications and information processing”. This shift is supported, theoretically, by the informational interpretation of the postulates of quantum mechanics: preparation, transformation and measurement are reinterpreted com- putationally as the encoding, processing and decoding of information; and vice versa. In this interpretation, what changes between classical and quantum theory? From a logical point of view, the transition from bit to qubit, from a physical point of view, the laws of composition of systems. We therefore present monoidal categories as a natural theoretical framework for the description of physical systems and processes for quantum and non- quantum computation and communication, demonstrating how this language is suitable for an integrated and multidisciplinary approach.
The cultural impact of the proposal, the fruitful interaction between researchers in physics education and those in the area of theoretical research, and the passion of some teachers made it possible to start a collaboration to build an educational sequence for students. The result of this collaboration is a teaching leaning sequence on quantum technologies for students, led by the MER and based on inquiry-based learning and the modelling- based teaching. Supported by these methodological frameworks, we produced lessons and worksheets all along the way that had the dual task of supporting teachers’ work and students’ learning. They also made it possible to experimentally verify the positive and critical effects of the proposal. The instructional materials constructed, the data analysis and the constant monitoring with the teachers involved, determined the development of a second course for teacher professional development, inspired by the first, based entirely on research. We hope that this attempt at integrated and multidisciplinary approach for the education of quantum information science, based on the concept of compositionality and the diagrammatic model, can be increased and provide inspiration for future educational paths in other disciplines as well
