The present paper summarizes the building of the GIREP community on teaching and learning quantum physics in secondary school and the results of the community’s first discussion workshop. The questions for the workshop were prepared using feedback from the community members. The participants to the Working Discussion in Budapest Conference were divided in five groups, each focusing on distinct approaches in teaching quantum physics, as identified by the community. The five groups discussed the questions and identified core concepts that any course on quantum physics should cover. They also identified some specificities of each approach and discussed which approaches are particularly well suited or poorly suited to address specific concepts. The paper describes the creation of the community, the process of selecting the questions for the workshop and the results of the discussion on specific questions. The group identified potential research questions that should be addressed with future research. The results are summarized into a short position statement on the future goals of the community.

Teaching introductory quantum mechanics is challenging, especially to students who have limited knowledge of mathematics. The challenges and approaches are evidenced in a wide range of literature. Our goal is to develop an active engagement module for introductory quantum mechanics that would cover the most important concepts: indeterminism, incompatibility, the difference between superposition and statistical mixture and the role of measurement. To accomplish this, we developed a free on-line simulation of a double well—a (pseudo) two-state system—which is able to evidence all of the above concepts. Students perform simulated experiments and build their knowledge from their observations. We present the simulation and the proposed experiments to address the above concepts. We provide a description of the activities and their outcomes as tested with high-school students in different settings. Qualitative analysis of learning outcomes offers evidence that between 60% and 100% of students can reach the following conclusions on their own. (i) The particle is only ever detected in one of the possible states. (ii) The outcome of one experiment cannot be predicted, only its probability can be predicted. (iii) For some pairs of quantities, knowing the value of one quantity exactly precludes the possibility of knowing the value of the other quantity exactly. (iv) A statistical mixture (of eigenstates) is not the same as a superposition state. (v) The measurement affects the time evolution of the system. The most difficult conclusion for students to reach is how exactly the measurement affects the system. The success rates presented here lead us to conclude that the simulated experiments can be very useful when designing an active engagement course on the concepts of quantum mechanics. While the development is done in high-school, we believe the results are also relevant for introductory university level, especially for non-physics students.

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In this article the discussion of Working Group 3 during the GIREP online seminar 2020 on teaching and learning quantum physics in teacher education is summarized. Conclusions are drawn and research desiderata formulated.