With the increasing industrial relevance of new quantum technologies, a well-educated quantum workforce becomes increasingly crucial. The foreseeable lack of workforce raises important questions. What are the expectations regarding the future relevance of second-generation quantum technologies? What are the requirements for the workforce in the coming quantum industry? Which competences, knowledge, and skills should future employees have? In this paper, we report the results of our study that were aimed at mapping requirements and forecasts for the future quantum workforce. Our study consisted of three consecutive survey rounds. In total, we gathered 188 responses from industry and academic experts across Europe. Our study results served as an input for the development of the European Competence Framework for Quantum Technologies, delivered by the project QTEdu CSA for the European Quantum Flagship. In addition, we will discuss predictions from experts related to the future quantum workforce, including the expected industrial relevance of the main areas of quantum technologies, the need for educational efforts, and the expected influence of quantum technologies on everyday life.

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection in Investigating and Improving Quantum Education through Research.] The present review intends to show the current state of teaching quantum-related content, to analyze and compare its learning efficiency, and to give a systemized overview of quantum-educational activities in the last years. We focus on teaching and learning elements, their innovative tools, and process-oriented studies that are empirically validated. In terms of content, we mainly concentrate on aspects of modern quantum technology. The final dataset for our analysis and synthesis included 50 studies published since 2017 and until the follow-up survey in February 2024. We have found that most of the teaching strategies described and investigated are in the field of quantum mechanics and are designed to provide an introduction to the rather broad and differentiated topic of quantum science. Studies specifically addressing mathematical concepts can exclusively be found for the target group of university students. Visualizing ideas or innovative social interventions to improve quantum learning is mainly found in schools while only a few approaches for further education show validated results. Tools most often examined in the studies reported were of digital nature, though some experiment-focused learning environments were also evaluated. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

A poorly elaborated learner’s understanding of models has been reported to be one of the major sources for learning difficulties in the quantum domain. To be able to provide physics education in schools with evidence as to how this problem can be tackled, a deeper theoretical understanding of the structure of learners’ mental models in quantum physics seems essential. In this respect, previous research has proposed two dimensions in learners’ mental models in the atomic hull context, labelled Fidelity of Gestalt and Functional Fidelity. In this article, we investigate whether this proposed two-factorial structure can be transferred to quantum concepts beyond the atomic hull context. To approach this, we surveyed the structure of students’ mental models in the context of photons’ properties and behavior. We conducted a questionnaire study: 170 secondary school students completed a survey instrument adapted from the literature. Using exploratory factor analysis, the two factors Fidelity of Gestalt and Functional Fidelity to describe the students’ mental models could be replicated for the photon context. We provide a selection of results from physics education literature to reveal that our two-factor framework to describe the students’ mental models seems to be a promising endeavor in the landscape of science education research in general.

This article presents a review of research on smartphone usage in educational science settings published between January 2015 and August 2022, and aims to provide an overview of the constructs evaluated and to identify potential gaps in current research for researchers working on this topic. Specifically, the search for publications in the relevant years was narrowed down to such studies that provided empirical evidence for the impact of smartphone usage on teaching and learning in natural science education. The databases used for the search were ERIC, Scopus, and Web of Science. In total, 100 articles were surveyed. The study findings were categorized regarding the type of smartphone usage, as well as the type of educational institution and constructs investigated. Overall, the results from this review show that smartphone usage in educational science environments has the potential for rather positive effects, such as an increase in learning achievements or an increase in motivation, and smartphone usage rarely leads to detrimental effects. Despite the substantial amount of studies to date, more research in these areas would allow for more generalized statistical results and analyses and is therefore desirable.

An easy circuit for measuring the power of a solar panel in physics classroom by using the microcontroller Arduino will be introduced in this article. The measured data is transferred via Bluetooth to the smartphone app ‘phyphox’ where it is displayed graphically. The circuitry enables measuring the power of a solar panel in different situations of light intensity. Several model experiments for students will be described.