(CZ) Rozvoj modernizace všeobecného vzdělání ve fyzice
(EN) The Development of Modernization of General Education in Physics

Modernization in the teaching of physics appearing throughout the world as a consequence of the Scientific and Technological Revolution is a difficult and long-term process, which aims to bring about a qualitative change in the objectives and the conception of physics. In the Socialist countries the problem of modern education in physics is being dealt with by a new science called didactics of physics. The present-day state is characterized by a search for the optimal model of the educational system as a whole in all its aspects. In the capitalist countries the co-operation of teams of physicists, educationists, psychologists and schoolteachers gave rise to a number of new projects in education in physics. All the modern projects are known to have a number of common objectives, in the realization of which three basic models come into play. In Czechoslovakia the first to tackle the problems involved was the Union of Czechoslovak Mathematicians and Physicists, a scientific society; scientific and research work in this field begins developing after the recognition of didactics of physics as an independent scientific discipline and the inclusion of problems of modern education in physics in state and departmental research plans. Departmental research is directed by departmental institutes of the Ministry of Education and is orientated to the creation of curricula, syllabi and textbooks for the incipient realization of the project of the new educational system. The basic research in the field of didactics of physics in Czechoslovakia is directed and co-ordinated by the Cabinet for the Modernization of the Teaching of Physics and the Institute of the Physics of Solid Materials of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, which is engaged in State Research Plan VIII-5-4, Partial Task VIII-5-4/2 Models of the Prospective System of Education in the Socialist Society, and coordinates the physics component of the subtask „Model of the Prospective Conception of the Teaching of Physics and its Experimental Verification“. At the present time it is engaged in the basic research into the problem of the significance, the conception and the goals of physics in general education and is preparing a prognosis of the didactic system of physics for the school of the future. Even at the present time it is exercising a positive influence on the reform of the educational system now in progress. In order to carry out the complex and exacting tasks the institutions which are handling state as well as departmental research tasks must be strengthened both in personnel and their specialist level, and the co-operation with other countries, especially the socialist ones, must be extended.