The Design and Validation of the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey
S. B. McKagan, K. K. Perkins, C. E. Wieman

TL;DR
The paper presents the design and validation of the Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS), a tool to assess students' understanding of quantum mechanics and evaluate instructional methods in physics education.
Contribution
It introduces a validated, 12-question survey specifically designed for assessing conceptual understanding in quantum mechanics courses.
Findings
QMCS is effective for assessing sophomore-level modern physics courses.
The survey is less suitable for graduate-level quantum courses.
Faculty interviews revealed diverse opinions on modern physics topics.
Abstract
The Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey (QMCS) is a 12-question survey of students' conceptual understanding of quantum mechanics. It is intended to be used to measure the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods in modern physics courses. In this paper we describe the design and validation of the survey, a process that included observations of students, a review of previous literature and textbooks and syllabi, faculty and student interviews, and statistical analysis. We also discuss issues in the development of specific questions, which may be useful both for instructors who wish to use the QMCS in their classes and for researchers who wish to conduct further research of student understanding of quantum mechanics. The QMCS has been most thoroughly tested in, and is most appropriate for assessment of (as a posttest only), sophomore-level modern physics courses. We also…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
