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Role of lab partner and group dynamics in student quantum reasoning

Determine how lab partner or group interactions influence students’ reasoning about quantum-mechanical phenomena when interpreting results from single-photon quantum optics experiments, characterizing the impact of collaboration dynamics on conceptual understanding.

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Background

The paper analyzes pairs of students collaborating during complex quantum optics experiments and observes how their reasoning develops in conversation. While these cases suggest collaboration may shape sense-making, systematic evidence is needed.

The authors explicitly pose understanding the influence of lab partners or groups on student reasoning as an open direction for future research.

References

Nonetheless, there are many open questions to which the community should attend. Future work is needed to implement a large-scale study of conceptual learning with these experiments, to identify resources other students activate while working with these experiments and related ones (e.g., the Bell's inequality experiment), and to understand the role that lab partners or groups play as students reason through the seemingly strange experimental results that quantum mechanics predicts.

— Student reasoning about quantum mechanics while working with physical experiments (2407.00274 - Borish et al., 29 Jun 2024) in Section 6 (Conclusions)