“…This way, teachers can assist students in organizing the fragmented understanding they develop through the discussions and contribute with their own disciplinary insights, even if a final “correct answer” cannot always be provided. Precisely because there are clear disparities in how physicists interpret fundamental concepts and issues in quantum physics (see, e.g., Cheong & Song, ), this field is well suited for students also to gain insight into how interpretation and argumentation form part of the nature of science. With a sound balance with authoritative approaches, small‐group discussions may contribute to students’ motivation and understanding of quantum physics by making them aware of how their reflections on fundamental concepts and principles in quantum physics relate to physicists’ interpretations of quantum physics today and historically.…”
Quantum physics challenges our views of the physical world and describes phenomena that cannot be directly observed. The use of language is hence essential in the teaching of quantum physics.With a sociocultural view of learning, we investigate characteristics of preuniversity students' small-group discussions and their potential for enhancing understanding of quantum physics. The empirical data are 96 small-group discussions about two fundamental dilemmas: whether light can be both waves and particles, and whether the cat in Schrödinger's thought experiment can be considered to be both dead and alive. The discussions were analyzed by means of a framework of four categories, grouped as productive and nonproductive for learning, where "productive" means that students build constructively on each other's utterances and take the peers' ideas into account. Results show that a total of 70% of the discussions were productive, indicating that small-group discussions have a potential for enhancing understanding in quantum physics. This potential is constituted by leading students to (i) articulate conceptual difficulties, (ii) deepen their understanding through exchange of views, and (iii) formulate new questions. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the learning potential of small-group discussions may be realized by combining dialogic and authoritative approaches.
“…This way, teachers can assist students in organizing the fragmented understanding they develop through the discussions and contribute with their own disciplinary insights, even if a final “correct answer” cannot always be provided. Precisely because there are clear disparities in how physicists interpret fundamental concepts and issues in quantum physics (see, e.g., Cheong & Song, ), this field is well suited for students also to gain insight into how interpretation and argumentation form part of the nature of science. With a sound balance with authoritative approaches, small‐group discussions may contribute to students’ motivation and understanding of quantum physics by making them aware of how their reflections on fundamental concepts and principles in quantum physics relate to physicists’ interpretations of quantum physics today and historically.…”
Quantum physics challenges our views of the physical world and describes phenomena that cannot be directly observed. The use of language is hence essential in the teaching of quantum physics.With a sociocultural view of learning, we investigate characteristics of preuniversity students' small-group discussions and their potential for enhancing understanding of quantum physics. The empirical data are 96 small-group discussions about two fundamental dilemmas: whether light can be both waves and particles, and whether the cat in Schrödinger's thought experiment can be considered to be both dead and alive. The discussions were analyzed by means of a framework of four categories, grouped as productive and nonproductive for learning, where "productive" means that students build constructively on each other's utterances and take the peers' ideas into account. Results show that a total of 70% of the discussions were productive, indicating that small-group discussions have a potential for enhancing understanding in quantum physics. This potential is constituted by leading students to (i) articulate conceptual difficulties, (ii) deepen their understanding through exchange of views, and (iii) formulate new questions. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the learning potential of small-group discussions may be realized by combining dialogic and authoritative approaches.
“…For example, students are asked to discuss whether or not light can be both waves and particles and if Schrödinger's cat can be both dead and alive at the same time. The wave–particle duality of light and quantum superposition (problematized in the thought experiment “Schrödinger's cat”) are both conceptually challenging topics where philosophy and interpretations of quantum physics come into play (Cheong & Song, ; Henriksen, Angell, Vistnes, & Bungum, ; Myhrehagen & Bungum, ). This seemed to fascinate but also frustrate students, as illustrated by the connection between the “motivation” and “history, philosophy and NOS” themes in Figure and shown in these two quotes from different focus groups: It is confusing because it goes against so much else that we have learnt, but it is very exciting because it is quite new and it is quite temporary, things you cannot quite explain so it becomes very exciting and you kind of, you want to try to find these things out for yourself.If people who research this all the time don't know what's going on, then I don't think I will be able to deduce it. The last quote may be a reference to a discussion a couple of minutes earlier in the same focus group, concerning a task where students were asked to discuss the wave–particle duality of light after watching a film where two physicists expressed conflicting views on what light is.…”
Calls for renewal of physics education include more varied learning activities and increased focus on qualitative understanding and history and philosophy of science (HPS) aspects. We have studied an innovative approach implementing such features in quantum physics in traditional upper secondary physics classrooms in Norway. Data consists of 11 focus groups with 58 participants from 11 physics classes, collected in 2013-2016 and analyzed thematically. Using the the implied student (Ulriksen, 2009) as an analytical lens, we study the experiences of actual physics students against the student "implied" by the innovative approach. The findings suggest that students struggled where the new approach holds implicit expectations that differ greatly from how students are expected to "do physics" in traditional classrooms. For example, students found it difficult to monitor their performance in the absence of calculations and factual answers.However, students easily adopted visualizations as a new tool for reaching the familiar goal of content knowledge. HPS aspects motivated students, but were not necessarily seen as learning goals in their own right. There is a need for better alignment between learning activities, learning goals and assessment in innovations, and for making implicit expectations explicit so that students know what "doing physics" successfully entails.
“…Concerning the philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics, the suspensive perspective suggested by Cheong and Song (Cheong and Song, 2014) was adopted for the 2016 and 2017 lectures. In this approach, a distinction is made between the prediction rules and the reality claims rather than between the formalism and interpretation of quantum mechanics.…”
Section: Appendicesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…While a significant number of scientists can be said to adhere to the Copenhagen interpretation (Bohr, 1935), other incompatible interpretations such as Bohmian mechanics (Bohm, 1952), the many-worlds interpretation (Everett, 1957), the ensemble interpretation (Ballentine, 1970), and the Seoul interpretation (Zhang, 1998) have also gained traction in recent decades. Accordingly, alternative approaches to the teaching of quantum mechanics have been suggested based on these theoretical frameworks (see, for example, (Greca and Freire Jr., 2003;Passon, 2004;Cheong and Song, 2014)). As the choice of the philosophical framework impacts the interpretation of some key experimental results and concepts, it is vital that this issue is given careful thought before the course, and that regardless of which framework is chosen students are made aware where scientific consensus ends, and the instructor's proclivities begin.…”
In this article, I propose a student-centred approach to teaching quantum chemistry and spectroscopy at the bachelor-level that extends active learning principles outside course lectures. The aim is to elucidate what type of methodology is most appropriate and efficient for this context and student population, and how this incorporation of active learning elements impacts learning. Three quantitative learning indicators are used to measure the effectiveness of the proposed approach, including exercise points obtained by the students, exam results, and the results of a conceptual inventory administered both at the beginning and the end of the course. The proposed model resulted in substantial improvement in learning outcomes compared to a previous class where active learning elements were confined mostly to the course lectures and a traditionally taught class. The model can be generalised to any subject where both quantitative and qualitative understanding is required. Thus, in addition to providing further support for the effectiveness of active learning approaches in science, this study shows the benefits of applying these approaches to exercises and other course tasks besides lectures.
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