Case study of a successful learner’s epistemological framings of quantum mechanics

Abstract

Research on student epistemologies in introductory courses has highlighted the importance of understanding physics as "a refinement of everyday thinking" [A. Einstein, J. Franklin Inst. 221, 349 (1936)]. That view is difficult to sustain in quantum mechanics, for students as for physicists. How might students manage the transition? In this article, we present a case study of a graduate student's approaches and reflections on learning over two semesters of quantum mechanics, based on a series of nine interviews. We recount his explicit grappling with the shift in epistemology from classical to quantum, and we argue that his success in learning largely involved his framing mathematics as expressing physical meaning. At the same time, we show he was not entirely stable in these framings, shifting away from them in particular during his study of scattering. The case speaks to literature on students' epistemologies, with respect to the roles of everyday thinking and mathematics. We discuss what this case suggests for further research, with possible implications for instruction.

How expectations of confirmation influence students’ experimentation decisions in introductory labs

“…Students' beliefs about the nature of science have been similarly found to be resilient to simple instructional interventions [42]. However, students' expectations during instructional activities are typically considered to be flexible and responsive to context [20,43]. Future work should further probe the resiliency and flexibility of students' model confirming expectations in lab.…”

Undergraduate quantum mechanics: lost opportunities for engaging motivated students?

“…In introductory quantum mechanics, there is some value in being able to accept the material for what it is and just 'shut up and calculate', but this should not be allowed to dampen the desire for deeper understanding. Similar to my interviewees' experiences, one student's struggles with these epistemological issues is described in detail Dini & Hammer (2017).…”

“…One significant result of this work is that the increased mathematical complexity of quantum mechanics allows students to 'hide their lack of conceptual knowledge behind their mathematical skills even better than students in introductory physics' (Singh & Marshman, 2015, p. 21). For understanding students' reasoning in quantum mechanics, researchers have employed theoretical frameworks such as epistemological framing (Dini & Hammer, 2017;Modir et al, 2017) and conceptual metaphors (Brookes & Etkina, 2007). This research points to how productive reasoning in problem solving is dependent on the frames in which students interpret the problem, and how metaphors used in quantum mechanics may lead students astray when interpreted too literally.…”

Improving student understanding of corrections to the energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom for the Zeeman effect

“…On the other hand, for each n, states in the "uncoupled" representation jn; l; m l ; m s i are labeled by the quantum numbers l; m l , and m s (in addition to n), in which all notations are standard. States in the uncoupled representation are eigenstates ofL 2…”