A review on the “Modern and Contemporary Physics at High School” research area

This paper presents a review of the literature regarding the subject “Modern and Contemporary Physics (MCP) at secondary school level” based on research papers, textbooks, master’s and doctoral’s dissertations, curriculum projects, and internet papers, approaching this topic. This review focus on publications targeting the teaching of physics and includes the first studies in this line of research published in the late seventies. Six large categories of studies were identified. Among them, it was possible to identify a clear concentration of studies presenting MCP topics as popularization of science or as bibliographical reference for high school teachers. Just a few studies were found concerning students’ misconceptions about MCP topics as well as regarding classroom proposals with actual learning outcomes.