We investigate the difficulties that undergraduate students in quantum mechanics courses have in transferring learning from previous courses or within the same course from one context to another by administering written tests and conducting individual interviews. Quantum mechanics is abstract and its paradigm is very different from the classical one. A good grasp of the principles of quantum mechanics requires creating and organizing a knowledge structure consistent with the quantum postulates.

The study reported in this paper is a survey (n = 236) that examines how upper secondary students (18–19 years old) in Norway come to terms with the wave-particle duality as presented as part of a short introduction to quantum physics. The main conclusion is that this concept is poorly understood. Some students demonstrate clear and explicitly formulated misconceptions rooted in a classical physics world-view. Scholars in physics have stated that the concept of duality is unnecessary, but still included in school and university physics.

The study reported in this talk is a survey (n=236) that examines how upper secondary students in Norway (18-19 years old) come to terms with the main idea of quantum physics as contrasted to classical mechanics. Two concepts were chosen as indicators, the concept of modelling the atom and the concept of wave-particle duality. The main conclusion is that most students seem to be locked into the classical worldview where material particles have definite locations and moves along definite tracks.

We present a new research-based course on quantum mechanics in which the conceptual issues of quantum mechanics are taught at an introductory level. In the context of virtual laboratories, the students discover from the very beginning how quantum phenomena deviate from our classical everyday experience. The results of the evaluation of the course show that most of the students acquired appropriate quantum mechanical conceptions, and that many of the common misconceptions encountered in traditional instruction have been avoided.

Quantum mechanics is considered conceptually to be a demanding topic due to the classically counterintuitive nature of its basic concepts and entities. A study is carried out where a picture of students' conceptual understanding of quantum entities (quantum `particles') is constructed. This is done by analysing students' qualitative problem solving. The problem used as a research tool in this study is based on an example of the gradual formation of interference pattern for either low intensity light or electron beam passing through a two-slit system.

Quantum mechanics is an area of immense importance to modern technologies and industries, covering a diverse range of applications from semiconductors and lasers to advances in nuclear medicine. Quantum mechanics is also a subject that most students have traditionally found both difficult and abstract. Despite these facts, quantum mechanics has not until recently attracted much pedagogical research and introductory courses are still taught in much the same manner as they have been for the past seventy five years.

This thesis presents a comprehensive review of research into students’ depictions of quantum mechanics. A taxonomy to describe and compare quantum mechanics education research is presented, and this taxonomy is used to highlight the foci of prior research. A brief history of quantum mechanics education research is also presented.

This paper draws on part of a larger project looking at university students' learning difficulties associated with quantum mechanics. Here an unexpected and interesting aspect was brought to the fore while students were discussing a computer simulation of one-dimensional quantum scattering and tunnelling. In these explanations the most dominant conceptual hurdle that emerged in the students' explanations was centred around the notion of probability. To explore this further, categories of description of the variation in the understanding of probability were constituted.

Probability plays a critical role in making sense of quantum physics, but most science and engineering undergraduates have very little experience with the topic. A probabilistic interpretation of a physical system, even at a classical level, is often completely new to them, and the relevant fundamental concepts such as the probability distribution and probability density are rarely understood.

Results from an investigation of student understanding of physical optics indicate that university students who have studied this topic at the introductory level and beyond often cannot account for the pattern produced on a screen when light is incident on a single or double slit. Many do not know whether to apply geometrical or physical optics to a given situation and may inappropriately combine elements of both.