Understanding quantum numbers: students’ verbal descriptions and pictorial representations of the atomic structure

Zarkadis, Nikolaos; Papageorgiou, George; Markos, Angelos

doi:10.1080/09500693.2021.1959080

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Finally, as regards the answers relating to the number of energy levels of the hydrogen atom, only 9% correctly recognize that they are infinite; for 65% there is only one level, presumably the one occupied by the only electron in the ground state; and for 10% there are 7 levels, an answer that might probably derive from previous knowledge of chemistry, as 7 shells are enough to make the periodic table. These aspects are in accordance with research findings already present in the literature [27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

Section: Course Effectiveness For Students Learning: Analysis and Res...supporting

confidence: 93%

“The Elegance of Quantum Mechanics”: a didactic path for high school

Lovisetti,

Melli,

Giliberti

2024

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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This paper describes the work of design, testing and evaluation of the effectiveness of a pilot teaching-learning sequence on Quantum Mechanics (QM) presented to high school students and teachers. The aim is to construct a path starting from the discussion of real experiments to get to the mathematical basic structure of QM, and to test whether this path can be effectively proposed at high school level. The experimentation consisted of 10 Zoom meetings, between October 2021 and January 2022. At the end of each of the first nine meetings, each student was given a form aimed at bringing out the reasoning used, and the level of understanding achieved. At the end of the course a satisfaction survey was also given. The effectiveness of the activity was assessed by means of all homework and interviews with 13 students and 6 teachers.

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Section: Course Effectiveness For Students Learning: Analysis and Res...supporting

confidence: 93%

“The Elegance of Quantum Mechanics”: a didactic path for high school

Lovisetti,

Melli,

Giliberti

2024

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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“…Since students' understanding of quantum concepts related to the atomic structure is of great importance for science education, we have launched a research project moving in such a research context. Thus, the present study is a part of a wider project targeting students' conceptualization of specific quantum concepts and their verbal and pictorial representations, having already provided us with evidence recently published (Zarkadis et al, 2021(Zarkadis et al, , 2022. Focusing on the concepts of orbital and electron cloud this time, we take advantage of the complementary nature of the verbal and pictorial representations (Ehrlén, 2009) and we seek a more realistic view of student representations of these two fundamental concepts and their differentiations.…”

Section: Rationale Of the Study And Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…tudents' understanding of quantum concepts related to the atomic structure is one of the most highly interesting research fields of science education (e.g., Allred and Bretz, 2019;Dangur et al, 2014;Cascarosa Salillas et al, 2022;Derman et al, 2019;Nakiboglu, 2003;Özcan, 2013;Papaphotis and Tsaparlis, 2008;Stefani and Tsaparlis, 2009;Sunyono et al, 2016;Zarkadis et al, 2021Zarkadis et al, , 2022. Among such quantum concepts, "orbital" and "electron cloud" seem to be significantly problematic for the students, mainly due to many understanding preconditions, like the "probability density" in the case of the electron cloud, or the lack of physical meaning, as it holds true in the case of orbital.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…However, the way in which students connect these two kinds of representation (verbal and pictorial) is a subject under discussion, and there are many cases where relevant inconsistencies have been found (e.g. Dangur et al, 2014;Zarkadis et al 2021Zarkadis et al , 2022. Thus, an effort to investigate students' understanding of these quantum concepts prerequisites the availability of evidence from both kinds of representation, the coevaluation of which could provide us with a more realistic view of what students have ultimately crystallized in their mind.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Studying Students’ Representations of the “Orbital” and “Electron Cloud” Concepts

Zarkadis,

Papageorgiou,

Markos

2024

SEI

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The study investigates secondary students’ understanding of “orbital” and “electron cloud” concepts in different quantum contexts (for values of the ʽprincipal quantum number n = 1 and n = 2) on the basis of their verbal and pictorial representations, evaluating also their consistency. Participants, which were 192 12th-grade students from six urban secondary schools of Northern Greece, represented these two concepts through two corresponding tasks of a paper-and-pencil assessment tool, each of which comprised two parts for verbal and pictorial representations, respectively. Results provide evidence that although students struggle to express verbally the orbital and electron cloud concepts, their competences in the corresponding pictorial representations are relatively better, exhibiting inconsistencies between verbal and pictorial representations. Inconsistencies also exist between representations of the orbital and electron cloud concepts, since students appear to have verbally a better understanding of the electron cloud than the orbital, whereas the opposite holds true for their pictorial representations. Comparing verbal and pictorial representations, the pictorial ones appear to be more consistent tools, whereas a quantum context defined by n = 2 seems to be more challenging for students compared to that of n = 1. Furthermore, an analysis of student profiles leads to their categorization in four classes, providing additional relevant information. Implications for science education are also discussed.

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“…The present study was a part of a wider project aiming to access student understanding of quantum numbers and its effects on both the verbal and pictorial representations of the atomic structure (see also Zarkadis et al, 2021). Participants are students of the 12 th grade, who have been taught the quantum model, but they were also aware of the Bohr's atomic model, as they had received relevant lessons in the 8 th and 10 th grades.…”

Section: Rationale Of the Study And Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporating Quantum Number Characteristics in the Pictorial Representations of the Atomic Structure: Consistency Issues and Students’ Relevant Profiles

Zarkadis

Papageorgiou

Markos

2022

SEI

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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the consistency of pictorial representations of the atomic structure drawn by students on the basis of particular quantum numbers’ characteristics. Participants were 192 students of the 12th grade of secondary Greek schools. This study’s instrument, a paper-and-pencil assessment tool, included four open-ended tasks. In each one of the four tasks, students were asked to draw representations of the atomic structure under two specific conditions concerning particular quantum numbers’ values. Results indicated the existence of a consistency between pictorial representations, providing indications that this kind of representation could be used as a consistent tool in order to study students’ understanding of the contribution of quantum number characteristics in the configuration of the atomic structure. Furthermore Latent Class Analysis revealed distinct student profiles indicating how this consistency is distributed across the sample and emerging student classes that have problems in conceptualizing the characteristics of the first and fourth quantum numbers. Implications for science education are discussed.

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Understanding quantum numbers: students’ verbal descriptions and pictorial representations of the atomic structure

Cited by 5 publications

References 26 publications

“The Elegance of Quantum Mechanics”: a didactic path for high school

“The Elegance of Quantum Mechanics”: a didactic path for high school

Studying Students’ Representations of the “Orbital” and “Electron Cloud” Concepts

Incorporating Quantum Number Characteristics in the Pictorial Representations of the Atomic Structure: Consistency Issues and Students’ Relevant Profiles

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