Does generation Z (and Alpha) need physics as a separate school subject?

Abstract

Physics teachers and learners collected surveys focused on their belief of teaching and learning physics at secondary and high schools. In the context of the idea of STEM education, physics cannot be replaced by another subject - science - to a sufficient extent. All the interviewed respondents agreed on this. The learning environment is now different, the position of the teacher is different too. But the aim of education is to prepare learners for the life in the 21st century and physics plays an important role. Pupils have to acquire the necessary competences, and skills for their application on the labor market at the time of the so-called fourth industrial revolution. This aim of education is essential but not negligible is their well being at schools. It is known that a crucial trend among young people is the incidence of depression and early school leaving. The outcome of our investigation has shown that in physics a lot of basic cognitive skills are taught. Physics is also a platform for buiding skills needed in the 21st century - communication, creativity, critical thinking. Physics is an essential part of STEM education. The results of the surveys were incorporated into the subjects of the pregraduate physics teacher training. The basic trend in teaching physics is quality versus quantity, the use of physics knowledge in everyday life. The way how physics teachers deal with these new objectives, which methods were chosen will be discussed in this paper.