This study addresses several concerns regarding the content structure of physics education. Previous research indicates that Korean science education lacks fundamental reflection on subject content (Lee et al., 2010), and physics teachers continue to ...
This study addresses several concerns regarding the content structure of physics education. Previous research indicates that Korean science education lacks fundamental reflection on subject content (Lee et al., 2010), and physics teachers continue to struggle with rote learning due to insufficient concept hierarchy (Kang et al., 2015). Additionally, the lack of connectivity between content systems creates difficulties in textbook writing (Lee et al., 2019), and in electromagnetic wave units, content is often presented fragmentarily, making it difficult to establish organic connections between concepts (Lee, 2020; Kam, 2024).
A potential solution to these structural issues can be found in the 2022 Revised National Curriculum. This curriculum emphasizes organizing physics content according to storylines (flow) and encourages students to reach core ideas that reveal the essence and framework (structure) of physics through the complementary development of three dimensions: knowledge/understanding, process/skills, and values/attitudes. While this direction shows promise in addressing current issues, the curriculum documents lack specific details about the flow and structure of physics. Recent studies (Shim et al., 2023, 2024; Lee et al., 2024) suggest that such flow and structure can be found within science's practice traditions.
Science's practice tradition refers to science as human activity viewed from an 'essential-holistic' perspective. It encompasses scientific viewpoints on nature along with related core ideas, thinking methods, attitudes (values), and the organic, holistic relationships between these elements. Therefore, exploring science's practice tradition can lead to understanding the flow and structure of physics as presented in the 2022 Revised Curriculum.
This study investigated science's practice tradition as one approach to concretizing the flow and structure of physics content. Specifically, we analyzed "The Evolution of Physics" (1938, EoP) and "Harvard Project Physics" (1970, HPP), both expected to embody science's practice tradition. We systematically analyzed the flow and structure of electromagnetic wave concepts in these texts to provide foundational material for establishing high school physics content systems. Additionally, considering that students can develop genuine understanding through science's practice tradition (Lee, Shim & Lee, 2024), we analyzed the understanding readers would achieve through these scientific classics.
The results show distinct characteristics in both texts. EoP's content flow emphasizes paradigm shifts, highlighting the limitations of existing perspectives and the success of new ones, presenting historical flow in logical reconstruction. HPP focuses on narrative flow centered on historical events, emphasizing contemporary scientists' thoughts and ideas, featuring a natural storyline from theoretical predictions to experimental proof and practical applications. Regarding content structure, EoP demonstrates a systematic structure centered on contrasting viewpoints, while HPP shows a less distinct contrast between perspectives with somewhat weaker logical connections between elements.
Understanding achieved through EoP encompasses five aspects of understanding (excluding 'application'), particularly emphasizing 'perspective' and 'self-knowledge.' HPP enables readers to reach all six aspects of understanding, with particular emphasis on 'explanation,' though somewhat lacking in meta-level 'self-knowledge.'
These findings suggest that both texts reflect science's practice tradition and support students' development of 'genuine understanding,' albeit with distinct characteristics. These results can contribute to establishing new electromagnetic wave content systems in high school physics by combining EoP's macroscopic structure with HPP's detailed content elements. This open approach can incorporate elements from both new scientific classics and contemporary texts to address issues in electromagnetic wave content structure.