Quantum mechanics is a difficult subject to teach due to its counterintuitive nature.^[1] As the subject is now offered by advanced secondary schools, educators have applied scientific methodology to the process of teaching quantum mechanics, in order to identify common misconceptions and ways of improving students' understanding.

Students' misconceptions range from fully classical physics thinking, mixed models, to quasi-quantum ideas.^[1] For example, if the concept that quantum mechanics does not describe a path for electrons or photons is misunderstood, students may believe that they follow specific trajectories (classical), or sinusoidal paths (mixes), or are simultaneously wave and particles (quasi-quantum: "in which students understand that quantum objects can behave as both particles and waves, but still have difficulty describing events in a nondeterministic way"). Among the concepts most often misunderstood are:

• the postulates of quantum mechanics provide no description for the trajectories for electrons or photons,^[1]
• amplitude of a wave is not a measure of energy,
• most bound states have no corresponding classical orbits,
• in practice, quantum mechanics gives probabilisitic rather than deterministic results,^{[2][3][lower-alpha 1]}
• intrinsic uncertainty rather than measurement error.^[2]

Issues also arise from misunderstanding classical concepts related to quantum concepts, such as the difference between light energy and light intensity.

N. David Mermin reports that an unconventional strategy based on abstract but simple math concepts is sufficient to teach quantum mechanics to students interested in quantum computing application rather than physics.^[11] Many of the issues that confound students of physics to not apply to this case and the mathematical background of quantum computing resembles the background already taught in computer science. Mermin develops notation and operations with classical bits then introduces quantum bits as superpositions of two classical states. He never needs to discuss even Planck's constant, which he suggests is important for quantum computer hardware but not software.

Philipp Blitzenbauer engages students through simple but intrinsically quantum single-photon experiments.^[12] The approach avoids the ambiguous classical vs quantum character of photons in optical interference experiments like the double slit. Students exposed to quantum mechanics in this way avoid developing misconceptions apparent among students in the control group.

• Physics education
• Physics education research
• Introduction to quantum mechanics
• Mermin's device
• List of textbooks about quantum mechanics