Teaching the Philosophical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Chemistry Through Controversies

Garritz, Andoni

doi:10.1007/s11191-012-9444-x

Cited by 24 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…Traditional physics teaching tends not to emphasize history, philosophy and the nature of science (NOS), even though such perspectives have long been advocated as important elements in science education in general (Abd‐El‐Khalick, ; Monk & Osborne, ) and in physics education more specifically (Garritz, ; Henke & Höttecke, ; Johansson et al., ). This importance is reflected in curriculum documents such as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, ) and in the Norwegian national curriculum for the postcompulsory physics subject for the final year of upper secondary school.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Actual versus implied physics students: How students from traditional physics classrooms related to an innovative approach to quantum physics

2018

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Actual versus implied physics students: How students from traditional physics classrooms related to an innovative approach to quantum physics

2018

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“…I. The symbols we used in Table V are explained in the legend, but for clarity about the use of "compulsory" or "optional," some extra information: A filled square (■) indicates a compulsory item of an upper secondary school physics course (students ages [17][18][19]. In most cases, this is an elective course.…”

Section: B Qp Curriculum Itemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the early years of QP were characterized by controversies, presuppositions, contradictions, and inconsistencies [14]. Leaving away all these struggles seems to be a justified simplification in textbooks, but on the other hand, it is a deprivation of giving students more insight into NOS [18,61].…”

Section: (Quasi-)historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, there are instructors who, indeed, use different interpretations of QP to teach students aspects of the nature of science (NOS) [4,13,14]. In the views of these educators, the disagreement on interpretations is an excellent example of science in action: competing scientific theories can exist next to each other as long as there is no evidence favoring one theory over another one [15][16][17][18]. Thus, for secondary education philosophical and historical aspects of QP are not only advocated to enhance students' conceptual understanding but also to serve the more general goal to develop their view on the NOS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of secondary school quantum physics curricula of 15 different countries: Different perspectives on a challenging topic

Stadermann

Berg

Goedhart

2019

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Secondary school level quantum physics (QP) courses have recently been implemented in the national curricula of many countries. QP gives opportunities to acquaint students with more recent physics and its applications and to discuss aspects of the nature of science. Research has shown that QP is a challenging area for students. Because the inclusion of QP in national curricula is rather new in most countries, it is interesting to compare QP curricula from these countries to make the choices by curriculum designers visible. In this study, we provide a detailed overview of QP courses from fifteen countries. We collected and analyzed official curriculum documents to identify key items present in most curricula. Our inventory identifies a shared current core curriculum of QP which contains the following seven main categories: discrete atomic energy levels, interactions between light and matter, wave-particle duality, de Broglie wavelength, technical applications, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and the probabilistic nature of QP. We also found differences in the focus of the listed topics of certain countries, which indicate different views on teaching QP and might inspire curriculum designers struggling with QP. For instance, challenging items like QP interpretations or epistemological aspects of QP are taught only in a few countries. Although research suggests that epistemological aspects help students to comprehend novel QP concepts, many countries do not explicitly include these in the curriculum. We provide reasons and suggestions for this.

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“…Considering how NOS and QP are tightly intertwined, researchers assume a positive effect of the development of students' NOS views on their conceptual understanding of QP and vice versa (Bungum et al, 2018;Garritz, 2013;Greca & Freire, 2014;Pospiech, 2003). Our research aim, therefore, is to investigate the connection between NOS views and QP learning for 12th-grade physics students.…”

Section: Creativity In Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Secondary school students’ views of nature of science in quantum physics

Stadermann

Goedhart

2020

International Journal of Science Education

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Epistemological and philosophical issues have always been relevant for the foundations of physics, but usually do not find their way into secondary physics classrooms. As an exception to this, the strangeness of quantum physics (QP) naturally evokes philosophical questions, and learners might have to change their ideas about the nature of science (NOS). In this exploratory mixedmethod study, we examined possible connections between upper secondary school students' QP content knowledge and their ideas about relevant aspects of NOS in the context of QP. We administered a QP concept test to 240 Dutch secondary students (age 17-19) after they attended classes on QP without a focus on NOS. Next, we selected 24 students with a range of test scores for individual semi-structured interviews about their understanding of wave-particle duality and their views on five aspects of NOS. Contrary to NOS studies in other contexts, the interviews showed that all 24 students had well-informed NOS views in the context of QP. We contend that NOS in QP might be more easily accessible than in many other contexts. Our results suggest that QP can have an additional role in the physics curriculum by enhancing students' understanding of NOS. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Teaching the Philosophical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Chemistry Through Controversies

Cited by 24 publications

References 92 publications

Actual versus implied physics students: How students from traditional physics classrooms related to an innovative approach to quantum physics

Actual versus implied physics students: How students from traditional physics classrooms related to an innovative approach to quantum physics

Analysis of secondary school quantum physics curricula of 15 different countries: Different perspectives on a challenging topic

Secondary school students’ views of nature of science in quantum physics

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