Integrating experiments into the teaching of energy

The evolution of French physics curricula and experiments from the beginning of the century to the present has been analysed. This study is based on a corpus consisting of standard curricula and textbooks. It shows the strong coherence between the aspects of energy presented through teaching content and experiments. Both present the same pattern of evolution over this century in successive curricula: a smooth evolution from 1902 to 1988 and an abrupt change in 1994. Two simultaneous phenomena characterize this evolution: a search for simplicity in the knowledge to be taught, both in respect of the conceptual content and experiments; and an increasing distance between the knowledge to be taught and established scientific knowledge. We assume that teachers have played an important role in this evolution.