The Role of Mathematics in Quantum Physics for High School Students: a Case Study

Within the research literature in STEM education, documented difficulties concern the epistemological issues arisen by the relationship between the technical aspects of mathematical models and the empirical reality. The transition from classical to quantum physics makes this aspect more problematic because of the need to give up familiar images or space-time descriptions. These problems were addressed by designing and implementing a teaching/learning path whose design principles cohere with the theoretical construct of ‘Appropriation’. In this paper, we focus on a case study built on the analysis of an interview in which a female student expressed a problematic position towards mathematical reasoning in physics. The analysis of the student’s discourse is based on Habermas's rationality construct. We show both the productiveness and the limits of her forms of epistemic rationality in appropriating quantum physics.