Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

Ideas of various groups of experts as a starting point for a new physics textbook

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2022

Abstract

This paper deals with the preparatory phase of creating a physics textbook for upper secondary schools. The intention of the Department of Physics Education of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University (Prague, Czechia) is to create a physics textbook for a two-year physics course for upper secondary schools, not only for grammar schools.

The paper discusses the ideas of various experts about the requirements for physics textbooks qualities. Physicists, other natural scientists (chemists, etc.), experts in didactics of physics, and physics teachers from secondary schools were included among these experts.

A qualitative research approach was used, and grounded theory was chosen as the basic research plan in this research. The data were collected through interviews and questionnaires.

In-depth interviews with 29 physicists were conducted and the follow-up questionnaire was completed by several hundred experts. The result of the research is a set of ideas about physics education and physics textbooks, on which a substantial part of the involved experts agrees.

The physics textbook, which will be created during the years 2021 and 2022, will be usable, among other things, in distance and hybrid physics education (interactive parts are intended in the textbook) and will enable physics education of various students depending on their study focus, motivation, and other factors.