PHYSICS EDUCATION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND FUTURE TRENDS

This article deals with physics education form its emergence in 19th century to the present and outlines future trends. Physics had become part of general education and remains an important part of science literacy. Current breakthrough of information and communication technology (ICT) is based on physics achievements, on the contrary interest of students in science and technology studies has been falling. The traditional role of schools as the main source of information has been replaced by ICT’s and teacher’s role in a modern school has been changing too. ICT’s provide an opportunity for innovation of education methods but they easily distract attention of students from physics content.

We discuss physics educational content and teaching methods for different school levels, whether they are appropriate for 21st century education and societal needs. We researched the state and perspectives of physics eduacation in the Czech Republic and identified the problem that number of pre-service teachers do not match the demand of schools for qualified physics teachers.