Nowadays, the importance given to astronomy teaching in science and physics education has been gradually increasing. At the same time, teachers play an important role in remediating the misconceptions about astronomy concepts held by students. The present study aims to determine the misconceptions of pre-service physics teachers (n=117), preservice science teachers (n=97) and in-service physics teachers (n=174) about astronomy concepts using a three-tier test. The Astronomy Concept and Achievement Test (ACAT), developed by Trumper (2001a, 2001b, 2006), was adapted as a three-tier instrument and used as the data collection instrument. The first tier, first and second tier and all three tier responses that were obtained from the ACAT were analyzed separately to identify misconceptions and to evaluate the respondents" achievement. The results showed that the achievement scores of pre-service and in-service teachers considerably decreased when the third tier was considered. In addition, when the misconceptions of pre-service and inservice teachers were determined using all three tiers, they held extensive misconceptions especially about the reasons for seasons, the Moon"s phases, the Moon"s phase in the solar eclipse and the Sun"s position in the sky.

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The purpose of this study is to examine and discuss published studies in the field of physics education in National Science and Mathematics Education Congress proceedings from 1994 to 2012. The research trends in these proceedings were analyzed through content analysis method. In line with the purpose, 282 studies were analyzed with a total of 735 studies in terms of demographic information of the authors (number, gender, institutions, etc.), general themes and physics topics, research types, sample size and methods, instruments, statistical methods, and use 1 Bu çalışmanın ilk sonuçları 9. Ulusal Fen ve Matematik Eğitimi Kongresinde sunulmuştur. Ulusal Fen Bilimleri ve Matematik Eğitimi Kongrelerindeki… 128 of covariance and retention test. It is thought that the current analysis will provide deeper insights to researchers in the field as it shows trends and patterns in physics education. Moreover, the need to conduct similar research studies in the field is emphasized.

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