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Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics
written by Chandralekha Singh and Guangtian Zhu
Development of research-based multiple-choice tests about quantum mechanics is important for assessing students' difficulties and for evaluating curricula and pedagogies that strive to reduce the difficulties. We explore the difficulties that the undergraduate and graduate students have with non-relativistic quantum mechanics of one particle in one spatial dimension. We developed a research-based conceptual multiple-choice survey that targets these issues to obtain information about the common difficulties and administered it to more than a hundred students from seven different institutions. The issues targeted in the survey include the set of possible wavefunctions, bound and scattering states, quantum measurement, expectation values, the role of the Hamiltonian, time-dependence of wavefunction and time-dependence of expectation value. We find that the advanced undergraduate and graduate students have many common difficulties with these concepts and that research-based tutorials and peer-instruction tools can significantly reduce these difficulties. The survey can be administered to assess the effectiveness of various instructional strategies.
Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference series
Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010
Volume 1289, Pages 301-304
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education - Applied Research
- Pedagogy
Education - Basic Research
- Assessment
Quantum Physics
- General
- Upper Undergraduate
- Reference Material
= Report
= Research study
PER-Central Type Intended Users Ratings
- PER Literature
- Researchers
- Professional/Practitioners
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Formats:
application/pdf
non-digital
Mirror:
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3515229
Access Rights:
Limited free access and
Available for purchase
A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2010 proceedings is available for purchase from the AIP.
Restriction:
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
DOI:
10.1063/1.3515229
PACSs:
01.40.Fk
01.40.G-
01.40.Ha
Keywords:
learning tools, multiple-choice survey, PERC 2010, quantum mechanics
Record Cloner:
Metadata instance created November 8, 2010 by Alea Smith
Record Updated:
May 1, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
August 24, 2010
ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!

Record Link
AIP Format
C. Singh and G. Zhu, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940).
AJP/PRST-PER
C. Singh and G. Zhu, Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940>.
APA Format
Singh, C., & Zhu, G. (2010, July 21-22). Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved November 9, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940
Chicago Format
Singh, Chandralekha, and Guangtian Zhu. "Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940 (accessed 9 November 2024).
MLA Format
Singh, Chandralekha, and Guangtian Zhu. "Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 301-304 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference. 9 Nov. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940>.
BibTeX Export Format
@inproceedings{ Author = "Chandralekha Singh and Guangtian Zhu", Title = {Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010}, Pages = {301-304}, Address = {Portland, Oregon}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {1289}, Month = {July 21-22}, Year = {2010} }
Refer Export Format

%A Chandralekha Singh %A Guangtian Zhu %T Surveying Students' Understanding of Quantum Mechanics %S PER Conference %V 1289 %D July 21-22 2010 %P 301-304 %C Portland, Oregon %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %O July 21-22 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Singh, Chandralekha %A Zhu, Guangtian %D July 21-22 2010 %T Surveying Students' Understanding of Quantum Mechanics %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 301-304 %S PER Conference %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10484&DocID=1940


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