The approach to Quantum Physics Teaching is more or less common to most textbooks and courses and follows what we call the “traditional approach to Quantum Physics”. Unfortunately, as it is generally known, this approach is not very effective and it is probably responsible for most of the common teaching-learning problems and for most of the misconceptions of Student.
In the last years, in the context of the two Italian national Projects “SeCiF” (Teaching and Understanding in Physics) and “FFC” (Physics for Cultural Formation), we have developed (and are still improving) “QUANTA-MI”, a non-traditional approach to Quantum Physics Teaching.
In the first semester of the Academic Year 2002-2003 this approach has been tested with 26 Student Teachers in two courses of the S.I.L.S.I.S.-MI (Inter University Lombard School of Specialization for Secondary Teaching-Section of Milano): a 18-hours training course on Quantum Physics Education and a 24-hours Laboratory course.
Students’ responses have been evaluated through the analysis of the material they prepared during the courses and of the two oral examinations the had at the end of the courses.
In fact all the Future Teachers were asked to have a portfolio, to build a path on a chosen item of Quantum Physics that is suited for Secondary School and to answer a written test and a questionnaire.
The key-points of our approach will be here highlighted and the first (and very encouraging) research results about its effectiveness for Student Teachers will be presented and discussed.