The Need for Curriculum Updating in Physics Education

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the critical need to update physics curricula to include modern concepts, as current textbooks often neglect these topics, risking misconceptions and hindering scientific literacy.

Contribution

It highlights the gap in physics education regarding modern physics topics and argues for curriculum reform to better reflect scientific advancements.

Findings

Modern physics concepts are underrepresented in textbooks

Neglecting modern topics can cause misconceptions

Curriculum updates are essential for scientific literacy

Abstract

We argue that most advances in science and technology during the past and the present centuries rely on modern physics concepts developed in the early $20$th century. The reliance is so profound that any improvement of literacy of science and technology falters in the absence of those concepts in physics education. Despite this important role, there are some remarks in literature concerning that modern topics have gone unnoticed in physics textbooks \cite{cht}. We discuss confirmation of this claim and also argue that physics education without reference to the difficulties of classical concepts and the need for paradigm change can lead to serious misconceptions and gives an incorrect image of science.