Seminar in Teaching and Learning in Mathematics

Abstract: Quantum physics education at the upper-secondary school level rarely extends beyond early 20th-century ideas, leaving students unprepared for comprehending many aspects of modern technologies central to everyday life. In a two-lesson intervention study, we investigated how upper-secondary students and pre-service teachers understand quantum teleportation when taught using a simplified diagrammatic formalism based on ZX-calculus, which represents quantum processes as diagrams of wires and boxes. Through phenomenographic analysis of video-recorded group work, answers to exercises, and a group interview with pre-service teachers, we identified an outcome space consisting of four qualitatively different ways students experience quantum teleportation. During the seminar, I will introduce the diagrammatic formalism, and share insights from the resulting outcome space, with a focus on discussing fruitful and troublesome connections between the diagrammatic formalism and physics identified in this study.