Would the teaching of quantum physics be improved with a more visual approach? Bob Coecke and colleagues put that idea to the test in a recent experimental study involving high-school students. The team devised a pictorial method for understanding quantum physics, outlined in the book, Quantum in Pictures, and then ran an online course based on this method for school students, to see how they would fare. They have just posted a new arXiv preprint detailing the study and the results: 82% of participants successfully passed an end-of-training exam, usually given to Oxford University postgraduates, with 48% achieving a distinction.
I wrote about the preliminary results of this experiment for The Guardian in 2023. There you can read more about how and why Coecke decided to develop the technique, and his double life as both a physicist and a musician. You can also read about his dabblings in "quantum music" in FQxI's classic article "Quanthoven's Fifth by Colin Stuart.