quantum education professionals reviews

quantum education professionals reviews

Exploring the Role of Quantum Education Professionals: A Comprehensive Review

1. Introduction to Quantum Education Professionals

Quantum Education Professionals (QEPs) are alumni of ionYX, a National Institute for Quantum Information and Matter cooperative. The role of QEP is to ideate and develop an educational infrastructure to support and engage individuals at a variety of levels of physics. We urge researchers invested in optimizing or mobilizing QEP expertise to take stock of the technical, contextual, and evaluation work of QEPs reported in this review, making connections where possible and calling out features of QEP research not present in the reviewed work. Instructors of QEPs play important roles with respect to refinement and development of technical knowledge, as well as communicating potential contexts for further studies. We share the work of QEPs in areas such as interacting with stakeholders to develop quantum learning progressions, preparing for student assessment and evaluation from quantum learning outcomes, implementing quantum supports for individuals expressing multiple identities, and more.

Quantum Education Professionals (QEPs) are beginning to sprout at universities worldwide, some focusing on quantum instructional design, research and evaluation, and others concentrating solely on content pedagogy. Educators and educational curricula are highly varied, and ‘one-size fits all’ solutions are applicable to relatively few. Our efforts are focused both on providing justification for the role of QEPs and on providing background on what these new creatures do and could potentially contribute to the educational ecosystem. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of the different areas in which QEPs operate and invest most of their efforts. Subsequently, we offer a longer review on assessment and evaluation.

2. Key Skills and Competencies Required

One of the characteristics of quantum technology is its strong interdisciplinary nature. While this is certainly also the case for the level of higher education, in this section the engagement with more than the education of a quantum specialist (who will have advanced technical knowledge of these fields) has implications for the level of higher education in general, in terms of the learning outcomes we expect students to acquire, focusing particularly on the Bachelor level. Quantum education professionals will indeed need to have sound technical knowledge of quantum technologies but also an understanding of the implications for the broader society, across the European Member States, to educate and support their practices. This means that a quantum education professional will need to have a range of competences that are listed in the next paragraph. This also means that university educators from social scientists and humanities and scientific and technical disciplines will very likely need to work closely in developing learning materials to ensure that the technical knowledge is covered as are the ESR aspects as they apply across the European Member States.

There is a range of skills and competencies that are crucial for quantum education professionals to possess in order to carry out their role effectively. These essential abilities can be divided into four areas: technical competencies, such as knowledge of basic quantum computing and circuit descriptions; pedagogical competencies, like an understanding of how to design activities promoting effective learning; or knowledge areas, such as the principles of quantum physics or the social sciences and humanities aspect of the European Research Area. This section will elaborate more extensively on the relevant knowledge areas and social skills. However, there is a whole range of technical parts that are important for a quantum education expert due to the importance of technology in learning and the implications of artificial intelligence for the pedagogical practices of both users and authors. We will present information briefly on the social skills.

3. Challenges and Opportunities in Quantum Education

Development in Quantum Technology itself. Quantum Technology itself is continually evolving. It is a highly interdisciplinary field that many require graduates with a significant background from the non-physics fields. For example, bio-quantum-tech, quantum-memory-based AI and alternate cryptographical norms being researched out.

Political and Social factor: There can be situations in various regions of the world where societal norms and benchmarks result in a depreciating feeling for quantum science and technology. The demand of the society even with a significant technological advancement in the country may hence not employ a mass amount of manpower having a solid quantum background. On the other hand, there are social and political factors that may lead to the over-exaggerated need for quantum education workforce.

Education Policy and Regulatory issue: The societal requirement enforced as an educational policy differs from society to society, country to country and international regions, and evolves with time. Thereby creating regional variations and regular changes not only in the requirement for the contents but also the purpose of education, being delivered. Different regions are better exploiting and exploring the technological possibilities emerging from Quantum Education than others.

Push for digitization coupled with realistic rhetoric about limitations of current technology of prominent companies leads to rapid technological advancement from our internet search to our home entertainment. With this rapid increase in technology comes the need for workforce education and training.

Quantum technologies are increasingly changing the way we look at underlying principles and paradigms. This transition sparks the push for not only solid technical knowledge among the engineering workforce but raises an even more pressing requirement for having an educational corps who, apart from being tech-savvy, can effectively communicate the benefits and necessity of quantum and other exponentiating technologies to an audience characterized by functional illiteracy. As a young profession, Quantum Education Professionals and quantum educators face a lot of challenges and at the same time have numerous opportunities. A careful stock of these can be a steering wheel for this new professional community.

4. Best Practices and Case Studies

The best practices section is a root section and there are sidebars for eight best practices articles. The case studies are also a root section, with sidebars for three case studies which detail programs designed around Quantum Science topics.

When we think of quantum education, the first question professionals in the field need to approach is: can you really teach people quantum physics? We argue, in several articles, that we can. In “A Short Course in Quantum Computing Basics and an Elegy for Off-the-Shelf Graph Theory,” we showed we made the threshold concepts of graph theory – a field of mathematics that is generally cut and dried, off-putting and boring – accessible and fun to both secondary students and the general public. We reported progress in several investigations of quantum computing specifically in 2021’s Exploratorium talk “Reports from the Edge of Education,” showing that, facilitated with the right video pieces of educational collateral, it is indeed possible to teach people quantum computing (and more) and critical to make that teaching approachable and engaging for all students, especially for the purpose of fixing quantum’s workforce diversity problem before it plagues quantum the way it plagues every other tech industry.

– A feature of the stakeholders and the audience who participated – A review of educational outcomes, which might include program evaluations, rubrics, or other assessment data – A review of the impact – A review of the bigger-picture applicability/impact researchers are learning through engaging with the stakeholders, or in the context of the program, through data and evaluation. – Interdisciplinary, also-groundbreaking field trips, written by Schau and Simkins, fifth paragraph

Each of the best practices will be featured in its own sidebar. The case studies section features detailed programs and initiatives and should draw from projects you have the ability to explain in detail. These case studies must include:

– Teaching classical and quantum computing in parallel at the Anne Arundel Community College – IRECC InConcert partnership program – Intertwining quantum and computing for the entire curriculum, written by Schau and Wilhelm – Coherently Connecting Computing & Community, written by Schau and Wilhelm (q-turn) – Using engaging and interactive problem-based learning from the get-go – A no-prerequisites, context-first, slow-build progression – Pace based on learning new content rather than math background – One-on-one meetings with student mentors – High school camps including CampQC and CCAT/Boys State – Combining teacher professional development with student recruitment – Programs like Out of TouchBOSONs for Lifelong Learners hosted by JILA – Curriculum development for Gateway Courses such as U Quantum: Quantum Opportunities for Undergraduate Research – Quantum games, online courses, and supply chain workshops such as Qlub-Quantum Computing Lab at University of Arizona – Programs that provide contextualized relatable content such as the Quantum Technology Exchange (and like programs at QuISE centers) or Quantum Stories.

This section will explore best practices for implementing Quantum Education. They will also include case studies of programs and initiatives that provide successful examples of how to engage learners in the wonders of quantum science. The best practices section should include specific programs or techniques that are examples of best practices being implemented. They might include:

V. Best Practices & Case Studies (2–4 pages)

5. Future Trends and Recommendations

1. Supporting QE and increasing awareness of QE as a field, including positively reframing (rather than avoiding) the term “literacy.” 2. Keep adding hard and soft skills to a QE’s toolkit and design educational experiences for creating and strengthening this skillset: prediction/assessment of what is “known-about” QT and QE, leading empirically-informed value shifts toward justice ∩ situational awareness and into normativities of care. 3. Identifying, researching, and tokenizing settlements that are just for all worldlings, so that when they are co-designed, they will necessarily be inclusive.

Recommendations:

The process of integrating these new recommendations into the quantum education field will involve multidisciplinary teams that include not only education professionals, but also new stakeholders from industry that can aid in the finance, execution, and the implementation needs of large-scale educational efforts. A new sector of the workforce will develop in the near-term future, poised to address new workforce skilling needs, develop inclusive education programs that are responsive to a range of social, cultural, economic, and ability differences, and also be able to advise funding agencies to support education initiatives with enough scale and scope to make a difference. We can already begin to observe the early stages of this shift in directives from the government. As of November 30, 2021, the NSF is moving the NFC program to a BRAIN focused programmatic directive. This increased focus on co-design and inclusion in new quantum advancements signals an increased need for the professional interpreters of quantum: Quantum Education Professionals. In this spirit, but always with an eye towards future prospects, we propose the following as needed next steps.