In spring 2020, 916 elementary schools and 443 high schools were closed in Croatia due to the Covid-19 pandemic and remote teaching was introduced. This had an impact on physics teaching as an experimental subject. In addition to positive aspects concealed in new experiences and work perspectives, the sudden transition from conventional face-to-face teaching to a remote format had an undeniable negative impact on physics teaching in elementary and high schools. In order to mitigate the effects and provide a detailed insight into the problems that arose during this transition, we conducted a quantitative study among teachers of physics in elementary and high schools in Croatia, with the aim of identifying logistical and technical problems and challenges in physics teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire with five parts (general data, teaching physics during the Covid-19 pandemic, experiments, sociological component, exchange of experience) was completed by 178 Croatian teachers. The results irrefutably point to the flexibility and responsiveness of physics teachers, an increase in the teachers’ workload, a lack of the experimental work that forms an essential part of the subject of physics, and a lack of teacher knowledge (in ICT), skills and equipment for conducting distance teaching. However, it also emerged that online teaching, if carefully designed and individualised, can stimulate additional commitment and interest in the subject among students. The paper presents the research findings in detail, with the aim of helping physics teachers to plan further teaching more effectively as and if the pandemic progresses.

In Croatia, as in Slovenia, all schools were closed on 16 March 2020 due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (COVID 19). This has changed the way of teaching and thus has an impact on physics teaching, which encourages experimentation. The paper presents the results of the study on physics teaching during the pandemic in Croatia and Slovenia at the pre-university level. The data were collected using an e-questionnaire. The results show how physics was taught by 332 teachers during the pandemic and highlight the problems they faced during online teaching, focusing on experimental work. It is evident that teachers from both countries tried their best to deliver physics lessons through direct teaching as well. Moreover, they tried to include the experiments and they were very flexible about the students’ obligations and much of what they learned during this time will be implemented in regular classes.