Daniel Domert et al 2005 Eur. J. Phys. 26 47 doi:10.1088/0143-0807/26/1/006
Daniel Domert1, Cedric Linder1,2 and Åke Ingerman2
Show affiliationsThis 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. The analysis reported is done in terms of the various facets of probability encountered in the simulation and characterizes dynamics of this conceptual hurdle to appropriate understanding of the scattering and tunnelling process. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
02.50.-r Probability theory, stochastic processes, and statistics
Issue 1 (January 2005)
Received 13 September 2004
Published 3 November 2004
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