DEVELOPING AND APPLYING FRAMEWORK OF MATHEMATIZATION IN PHYSICS EDUCATION IN DIGITALIZATION ERA

Mathematics, as the language of science, enables the quantitative and structural description of physical phenomena. In physics education, mathematical representation underpins theoretical modeling and strengthens explanatory and predictive reasoning. As digital technology becomes integral to science learning, practices such as simulation, data visualization, and AI-based analysis increasingly depend on mathematical expression to construct scientific meaning. This Study analyzes how mathematical elements are differentially emphasized in Korean, U.S., and England’s physics curricula and demonstrates that these differences systematically shape the forms of inquiry-based learning supported in digitally enriched educational contexts. The analysis focuses on three national curricula that explicitly connect physics and mathematics: Korea’s 2022 Revised Curriculum, the United States’ Next Generation Science Standards, and England’s National Curriculum. A framework of mathematization elements was developed from prior literature and applied to achievement standards through frequency and qualitative analyses. A total of 134 mathematization elements were identified, revealing statistically significant cross-national differences. Korea places strong emphasis on mathematics as a means of perception through experimentation and data analysis, England highlights the expression of quantitative relationships, and the United States foregrounds modeling via approximation and visualization. These findings indicate that effective physics education in the digital era requires integrating established mathematization practices with data analysis, simulation, and coding-based approaches. Keywords: digitalization in science education, nature of science, mathematization in science education