Polarization of light is one of the topics in the Croatian high school physics curriculum. It is taught in the final year of high school education. Twenty-seven Croatian high-school students (aged 18–19 years) were interviewed after regular instruction about their understanding of polarization of light and the model of light itself. This paper reports on the observed students’ reasoning strategies and conceptual difficulties. Some of the reported difficulties correspond with previously identified difficulties, but some new difficulties were also found. Students often based their explanations on the remembered but misinterpreted common schematic representations of polarization. Explanations seemed to be created on the spot, suggesting the absence of prior models of polarization.

中文翻译：

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分析高中生对光偏振的推理

光的偏振是克罗地亚高中物理课程的主题之一。它是在高中教育的最后一年教授的。定期接受指导后，对27名克罗地亚高中生（年龄在18-19岁之间）进行了访谈，以了解他们对光的偏振和光自身模型的理解。本文报告了观察到的学生的推理策略和概念上的困难。报告的一些困难与先前确定的困难相对应，但也发现了一些新的困难。学生们经常以记忆中但被误解的常见极化示意图为基础进行解释。似乎是当场创造了解释，这表明没有先前的极化模型。