Exploring the enactment of the 2007 Secondary School Physics Curriculum at an Anatolian High School in Istanbul

The purpose of this study was to describe the enactment of the 2007 Secondary School Physics Program introduced in the 2008-2009 school year by three physics teachers in an Anatolian high school in İstanbul, and explain the possible interactions between the enacted curriculum and the agents of the enacted curriculum. The case study approach was adopted in this study. Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews with the observed teachers and students. All data were coded and themes were constructed according to these codes. In light of these data collected from various sources, it was concluded that; the only manner in which the teachers conformed to the intended curriculum was that they followed the order of topics, they gave few examples related to daily life, they almost never employed the teaching methods stated in the intended curriculum but instead spent most of their time in the classroom solving questions that may be asked in the national examinations, they solved questions not from the official textbook published by MEB (Ministry of National Education) but from other textbooks published by dershanes which they also used when preparing the examinations they administered at the school. It was also concluded that the components that shaped the enacted curriculum were; the intended curriculum, university entrance examinations, other textbooks, the teachers and their colleagues, the students and their parents. The teachers were heavily influenced by the university entrance examinations, which also put a lot of pressure on the students; this is among the most significant findings of this study. Suggestions for policy makers and future research were given.