Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value

As part of ongoing research on student thinking about quantum mechanical concepts and formalism, we explored how students defined and made sense of expectation values. Previous research has focused on student difficulties when defining the expectation value for a generic operator and found that stud...

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Autores principales:	Benjamin P. Schermerhorn, Homeyra Sadaghiani, Anise E. Mansour, Steven Pollock, Gina Passante
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8b45e18c11284cffbeef727edde411c3
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:8b45e18c11284cffbeef727edde411c3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8b45e18c11284cffbeef727edde411c32021-12-03T16:09:33ZImpact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0201412469-9896https://doaj.org/article/8b45e18c11284cffbeef727edde411c32021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020141http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020141https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896As part of ongoing research on student thinking about quantum mechanical concepts and formalism, we explored how students defined and made sense of expectation values. Previous research has focused on student difficulties when defining the expectation value for a generic operator and found that students conflate other quantum mechanical ideas with expectation values. In this study, we analyzed survey data collected from two universities over a number of years and interviews carried out at two points during the semester. With a focus on underlying student thinking, we used a concept image perspective to categorize students’ concept definitions of the expectation values in the context of measuring spin in a spin-1/2 system and in the contexts of measuring energy and position for a particle in an infinite square well potential. Analysis of interview data showed that students invoke many different ideas when explaining their reasoning. The two most common definitions for the expectation value were weighted average and most probable value. In interviews, students’ definitions were influenced by whether the problem context involves continuous or discrete observables.Benjamin P. SchermerhornHomeyra SadaghianiAnise E. MansourSteven PollockGina PassanteAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 2, p 020141 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Benjamin P. Schermerhorn Homeyra Sadaghiani Anise E. Mansour Steven Pollock Gina Passante Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
description	As part of ongoing research on student thinking about quantum mechanical concepts and formalism, we explored how students defined and made sense of expectation values. Previous research has focused on student difficulties when defining the expectation value for a generic operator and found that students conflate other quantum mechanical ideas with expectation values. In this study, we analyzed survey data collected from two universities over a number of years and interviews carried out at two points during the semester. With a focus on underlying student thinking, we used a concept image perspective to categorize students’ concept definitions of the expectation values in the context of measuring spin in a spin-1/2 system and in the contexts of measuring energy and position for a particle in an infinite square well potential. Analysis of interview data showed that students invoke many different ideas when explaining their reasoning. The two most common definitions for the expectation value were weighted average and most probable value. In interviews, students’ definitions were influenced by whether the problem context involves continuous or discrete observables.
format	article
author	Benjamin P. Schermerhorn Homeyra Sadaghiani Anise E. Mansour Steven Pollock Gina Passante
author_facet	Benjamin P. Schermerhorn Homeyra Sadaghiani Anise E. Mansour Steven Pollock Gina Passante
author_sort	Benjamin P. Schermerhorn
title	Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
title_short	Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
title_full	Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
title_fullStr	Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
title_full_unstemmed	Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
title_sort	impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/8b45e18c11284cffbeef727edde411c3
work_keys_str_mv	AT benjaminpschermerhorn impactofproblemcontextonstudentsconceptdefinitionofanexpectationvalue AT homeyrasadaghiani impactofproblemcontextonstudentsconceptdefinitionofanexpectationvalue AT aniseemansour impactofproblemcontextonstudentsconceptdefinitionofanexpectationvalue AT stevenpollock impactofproblemcontextonstudentsconceptdefinitionofanexpectationvalue AT ginapassante impactofproblemcontextonstudentsconceptdefinitionofanexpectationvalue
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Impact of problem context on students’ concept definition of an expectation value

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