What are the students' mental models about the "spin" and "photon" concepts in modern physics?

Modern physics includes special learning difficulties and unusual conceptions. Because of this reason, it has been regarded as one of the most difficult subject to learn for both students and teachers. The present study aims to determine the mental models which can be drawn from students' reasoning about photon and spin concepts. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 pre-service physics teachers to determine their mental models about photon and spin concepts. The participants of this study consist of 15 female and 10 male students and they ranged from 22 to 24 years of age. All of the interviews were performed one to one by the researcher in class environment. As research findings we summarized students' responses to these concepts under three mental models. (c) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.