Department of educational technologies in physics has a long and rich history. The  year  of  birth  of  the  Department  is 1918. Professor Dmitry Goldgamer was the

first head of this Department  whose works were devoted to optics, magnetism and meteorology. With him at the Department of Physics have collaborated many distinguished university professor: V.G. Ulyanin, M.A. Grachev, V.A. Baranov, P.A. Shirokov and others. From 1924 to 1953  the department of physics  was headed by professor N.I. Medyantsev, who published in 1932 the book "Questions of methodology and methods of teaching of physics", which became one of the few original manuals on teaching of physics in high school.

With the advent in the department in 1958 young physicists K.A. Valiev and T.T. Bashkirov, who completed postgraduate studies at KSU, led by Professor, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR S.A. Altshuler, begins to develop the scientific direction for the study of the substance in the liquid state by electron paramagnetic resonance.

Kamil Akhmetovich Valiev  was chair of general physics  from 1959 to 1964 years. In a short time he created a scientific laboratory, and under his leadership successfully protected  thesis more than 10 people. In 1957  he predicted the effect of resonant absorption   gain on nuclear spin transitions due to the presence  of the electron spin of atoms. In 1958, together with S.A. Altschuler, they had solved the problem of non-spherical rotary Brownian motion of molecules of organic liquids and the influence of this movement on the absorption spectrum of liquids (mechanism Altshuler-Valiyev).

Among the many  of the Kazan students of K.A. Valiev of the most outstanding personalities who linked their scientific and teaching career with the Department of General Physics are M.M. Zaripov (1918-1998) and P.M. Yulmet'yev (1940-2009).

Since the late 70s the physics  Department was headed by associate professor, PhD physical and mathematical sciences Usmanov  and then Associate Professor, PhD pedagogical  sciences Vasil Gabdullovich Gaifullin.

For years, Mahmut Mubarakshievich Zaripov was the undisputed head of the Department of General Physics, defended in 1982 doctoral thesis on "Theoretical questions of relaxation processes in liquids." His opponent was Academician E.K. Zavoisky.

Since 1991, head of the department of general and experimental physics is a professor, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences Nefed'ev Leonid Anatolievich. Currently, L.A. Nefed'ev  studies quantum information processes in environments with phase memory, with applications in the field of the echo-processors and quantum computers.

Another subject on which work under the leadership of Leonid Anatolievich his graduate students, is the study of transient optical processes in external inhomogeneous electromagnetic fields. The urgency of this trend is the fact that the results can be used to create a coherent optical associative memory.

The staff of the department today - a 1 professor, 2 associate professors, 2 senior teachers and 2 people teaching and support staff. This  is  a  general-education  department. It  ensures  General  Physics  teaching  in pedagogical  divisions  of  institutes  and faculties of KFU.

research areas:

 1. Quantum information processes in media with phase memory;

 2. Study of transient optical processes in external nonhomogeneous electromagnetic fields.

In 2011, in connection with the creation of the Federal University on the basis of the Kazan State University, Department of General and Experimental Physics Tatar State University of Humanities and Education, renamed the Department of Educational Technology in physics, became a member of the scientific - pedagogical department of the Institute of Physics  of Kazan Federal University.