Framing Difficulties in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

Students' difficulties in quantum mechanics may be the result of unproductive framing rather than a fundamental inability to solve the problems or misconceptions about physics content. Using the theoretical lens of epistemological framing, we applied previously developed frames to seek an underlying structure to the long lists of published difficulties that span many topics in quantum mechanics. Mapping descriptions of published difficulties into errors in epistemological framing and resource use, we analyzed descriptions of students' problem solving to find their frames, and compared students' framing to the framing (and frame shifting) required by problem statements. We found three categories of error: mismatches between students' framing and problem statement framing; inappropriate or absent shifting between frames; and insufficient resource activation within an appropriate frame.

Submitted to PhysRev-PER. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1605.08735, from which this paper split off

References in corpus (7)

• A Review of Student Difficulties in Upper-Level Quantum Mechanics
• Student understanding of quantum mechanics at the beginning of graduate instruction
• Student understanding of symmetry and Gauss's law of electricity
• Using resource graphs to represent conceptual change
• Resource Letter: RBAI-1: Research-based Assessment Instruments in Physics and Astronomy
• Students' epistemological framing in quantum mechanics problem solving
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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Instructing nontraditional physics labs: Toward responsiveness to student epistemic framing
• Case study examining graduate student sensemaking using the epistemic game framework for Laplace's equation in upper-level electrostatics