Effectiveness of interactive tutorials in promoting “which-path” information reasoning in advanced quantum mechanics

Abstract

Research suggests that introductory physics students often have difficulty using a concept in contexts different from the ones in which they learned it without explicit guidance to help them make the connection between the different contexts. We have been investigating advanced students' learning of quantum mechanics concepts and have developed interactive tutorials which strive to help students learn these concepts. Two such tutorials, focused on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and the double-slit experiment (DSE), help students learn how to use the concept of "which-path" information to reason about the presence or absence of interference in these two experiments in different situations. After working on a pretest that asked students to predict interference in the MZI with single photons and polarizers of various orientations placed in one or both paths of the MZI, students worked on the MZI tutorial which, among other things, guided them to reason in terms of which-path information in order to predict interference in similar situations. We investigated the extent to which students were able to use reasoning related to whichpath information learned in the MZI tutorial to answer analogous questions on the DSE (before working on the DSE tutorial). After students worked on the DSE pretest they worked on a DSE tutorial in which they learned to use the concept of which-path information to answer questions about interference in the DSE with single particles with mass sent through the two slits and a monochromatic lamp placed between the slits and the screen. We investigated if this additional exposure to the concept of which-path information promoted improved learning and performance on the DSE questions with single photons and polarizers placed after one or both slits. We find evidence that both tutorials promoted which-path information reasoning and helped students use this reasoning appropriately in contexts different from the ones in which they had learned it.

Validation and administration of a conceptual survey on the formalism and postulates of quantum mechanics

“…Furthermore, we found that students who were enrolled in QM courses that used active learning methods, such as peer instruction and tutorials, performed better on the QMFPS than those who did not. These approaches included active learning techniques such as peer instruction [52,53], tutorials [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68], cooperative group problem solving [69], and Just-In-Time-Teaching [70,71], to help students develop a coherent knowledge structure of the formalism and postulates of QM. In addition, we found that, although graduate students performed significantly better than undergraduate students, their average overall score was not very high.…”

Can students apply the concept of “which-path” information learned in the context of Mach–Zehnder interferometer to the double-slit experiment?

“…This study was focused on student learning of fundamental quantum mechanics concepts such as the wave-particle duality, single photon interference, and quantum eraser [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] in the context of the Mach-Zehnder Interferometer, or MZI [11,19]. The goal was to use isomorphic problems [20] with different surface features to investigate the extent to which students were able to transfer their learning in advanced quantum mechanics from the context of the MZI to the context of the double slit experiment, or DSE [21][22][23] without an explicit intervention designed to help them make the connection between the different contexts. Student difficulties with quantum mechanics as well as effective approaches to improve student learning in quantum mechanics have been investigated, e.g., see .…”

Bancadas virtuais e storyboards com ilustrações microscópicas representativas como recursos no estudo da Mecânica Quântica

“…Nesta direção, podemos mencionar os softwares como experimentos virtuais que representam o Interferômetro Virtual de Mach-Zehnder e o Experimento da Dupla--Fenda, constantemente presentes em pesquisas que abrangem instruções didáticas direcionadas ao ensino da MQ (MÜLLER;WIESNER, 2002;SINGH, 2008;PEREI-RA;OSTERMANN;CAVALCANTI, 2009;KOHNLE et al, 2015;SINGH, 2016;MARIES;SAYER;SINGH, 2017;TREVISAN;SERRANO, 2018).…”