Analysis of textbook authors’ difficulties in developing of high school physics textbooks

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the difficulties experienced by authors during the development of physics textbooks. For this purpose, questionnaires and interviews were conducted with seven authors, and the difficulties in development of textbooks were collected and analyzed. The main results are as follows. First, 137 difficulties were classified into categories such as overall composition, level of content, detailed composition, inquiry, and illustration & photograph. Second, the difficulties were related to curriculum: lack of understanding of curriculum, inadequacy of inquiry, and distinction of physics Ⅰ and Ⅱ. Third, most difficulties were found in the process of selecting the level and the scope of the content. Based on the results of this study, we suggest some implications such as an improvement of curriculum development process, a need to develop curriculum commentary, an improvement of the textbook adoption system, and a need for a textbook data support system. ? 2019 The Korean Physical Society. All rights reserved.