Physicists as Key Players in Developing a New Physics Curriculum

This paper deals with the physics curriculum development for secondary (especially upper secondary) schools. The preparatory phase of an investigation which targets a development of a new physics curriculum is described and discussed here. We were searching the international databases Scopus and Web of Science for publications which deal with physics (or science) curriculum reforms and with methods how to create a new curriculum. The literature review brought several crucial findings: in founded publications is criticized that on the international scene, there is paid an insufficient attention to physics/science curriculum, changes of curriculum are only tiny adjustments in most cases, the so-called math issue is frequently mentioned among main problems of physics curriculum. However, there has not been identified any transparent methodology for curriculum development and in most cases of physics curriculum-making or curriculum reforms it is not clear who and why has carried out it. A qualitative research approach was used, and grounded theory was chosen as the basic research plan in our research. The data will be collected using interviews and questionnaires. In the spring of 2019, in-depth interviews with 30 physicists from Czechia will be conducted. The physicists in this study were selected based on their high H-index (Web of Science) and other excellent results at the international level. Implications for the development of a new physics curriculum will be extracted.