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We investigated the difficulties that physics students in upper-level undergraduate quantum mechanics and graduate students after quantum and statistical mechanics core courses have with the Fermi energy, the Fermi-Dirac distribution and…
Quantum physics is considered as one of the most remarkable discoveries of contemporary physics grown during previous century and gradually manifested to the scientific world such as inventions of laser, the transistor, the electron…
We use the Survey of Thermodynamic Processes and First and Second Laws-Long (STPFaSL-Long), a research-based survey instrument with 78 items at the level of introductory physics, to investigate introductory and advanced students'…
Introductory calculus-based physics textbooks state that electromagnetic waves are transverse and list many of their properties, but most such textbooks do not bring forth arguments why this is so. Both physical and theoretical arguments…
The ambiguity involved in the use of Maxwell's equation particularly in electron plasmas is discussed. It is pointed out that in the slow time scale perturbations the displacement current is ignored but it does not imply that the electron…
The perspectives of introductory classical physics students can often negatively influence how those students later interpret quantum phenomena when taking an introductory course in modern physics. A detailed exploration of student…
We explore the difficulties that advanced undergraduate and graduate students have with non-relativistic quantum mechanics of a single particle in one spatial dimension. To investigate these difficulties we developed a conceptual survey and…
Instruction in quantum mechanics is becoming increasingly important as the field is not only a key part of modern physics research, but is also important for emerging technologies. However, many students regard quantum mechanics as a…
Very little is known about how the nature of expertise in introductory and advanced courses compares in knowledge-rich domains such as physics. We develop a framework to compare the similarities and differences between learning and patterns…
We discuss several similarities and differences between the concepts of electric and magnetic dipoles. We then consider the relation between the magnetic dipole and a current loop and show that in the limit of a pointlike circuit, their…
We describe student difficulties in applying the superposition principle in combination with Gauss's law. We addressed these difficulties by developing a tutorial that uses guided inquiry. Students who used this tutorial following…
The possibility of an incompletness of the equations of electromagnetism is analyzed using a thought experiment that shows a non-physical behavior according to classical electromagnetism. Basically, from Maxwell equations it is shown that a…
We discuss a case study of the influence of epistemology on learning for a student in an introductory college physics course. An analysis of videotaped class work, written work, and interviews indicates that many of the student's…
Students' difficulties in quantum mechanics may be the result of unproductive framing rather than a fundamental inability to solve the problems or misconceptions about physics content. Using the theoretical lens of epistemological framing,…
The Physics Education Group at the University of Washington is examining the extent to which students are able to use graphs of potential energy vs. position to infer kinematic and dynamic quantities for a system. The findings indicate that…
Prior research has demonstrated how the realist perspectives of classical physics students can translate into specific beliefs about quantum phenomena when taking an introductory modern physics course. Student beliefs regarding the…
It is shown that in a heterostructure where screening is eliminated, the Amp\'ere-Maxwell law of electrodynamics implies that a dc or ac spinomotive force can be inudced with a time rate of change of a transverse electric field, and the…
We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with the corrections to the energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom for the strong and weak field Zeeman effects using degenerate perturbation theory. This investigation was carried out in…
We demonstrate how to derive Maxwell's equations, including Faraday's law and Maxwell's correction to Amp\`ere's law, by generalizing the description of static electromagnetism to dynamical situations. Thereby, Faraday's law is introduced…
One finding of cognitive research is that people do not automatically acquire usable knowledge by spending lots of time on task. Because students' knowledge hierarchy is more fragmented, "knowledge chunks" are smaller than those of experts.…