A study of students' learning processes on a new quantum physics course for preservice and inservice teachers

This is a study of a new quantum physics course for physics teachers and of students’ learning processes during the course. The emphasis is on qualitative representations of knowledge, conceptual understanding, and a reasonable level of theoretical understanding. In addition, students’ prior knowledge and the reported problems in learning quantum physics have been taken into account in choosing suitable teaching methods. The stated research questions focus on students’ use of models in explaining quantum phenomena. Students’ learning processes are monitored by different methods during and after the course. The designed course, the research methodology, and some preliminary results will be presented here. The preliminary results indicate that the applied methods can lead to a better understanding of quantum physics.