Graduate Quantum Mechanics Reform

TL;DR

This study over three years at Colorado School of Mines improved graduate quantum mechanics education by updating content, incorporating research-based teaching methods, and developing new assessment tools, leading to better conceptual understanding among students.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive reform of graduate quantum mechanics education, including new content, teaching techniques, and assessment tools, with evidence of improved student understanding.

Findings

Students respond well to research-based teaching techniques.

Students learn new content effectively.

Conceptual understanding correlates with problem-solving ability.

Abstract

We address four main areas in which graduate quantum mechanics education can be improved: course content, textbook, teaching methods, and assessment tools. We report on a three year longitudinal study at the Colorado School of Mines using innovations in all these areas. In particular, we have modified the content of the course to reflect progress in the field in the last 50 years, used textbooks that include such content, incorporated a variety of teaching techniques based on physics education research, and used a variety of assessment tools to study the effectiveness of these reforms. We present a new assessment tool, the Graduate Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey, and further testing of a previously developed assessment tool, the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey. We find that graduate students respond well to research-based techniques that have been tested mainly in introductory courses, and that they learn much of the new content introduced in each version of the course. We also find that students' ability to answer conceptual questions about graduate quantum mechanics is highly correlated with their ability to solve calculational problems on the same topics. In contrast, we find that students' understanding of basic undergraduate quantum mechanics concepts at the modern physics level is not improved by instruction at the graduate level.