A Study on Identifying the Misconceptions of Pre-service and In-service Teachers about Basic Astronomy Concepts

Abstract

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.

A Comparison of Experienced and Preservice Elementary School Teachers’ Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge about Electric Circuits

“…However, concern about inaccurate estimates still existed. Thus, a three-tier diagnostic instrument was proposed in which the third tier diagnoses students' confidence or certainty of response (Lin, 2016a;Caleon & Subramaniam, 2010;Kanli, 2014;Kirbulut, & Geban, 2014). Researchers in science education have applied the measurement of confidence for several purposes, such as making distinctions between alternative conceptions from either a lack of knowledge or simply guessing.…”

“…They found that students in their study held 21 significant alternative conceptions about waves, of which approximately half were spurious conceptions. Kanli (2014) also used confidence ratings to precisely identify preservice and in-service teachers' basic astronomy conceptions. Accordingly, diagnosing teachers' and learners' confidence in answering questions along with the conceptual diagnostic instruments not only helps researchers identify teachers' and learners' conceptions more accurately but also helps teachers and learners to be aware of their own conceptions.…”

The effects of teaching applications with real life content on the levels of pre-service teachers' abilities to associate daily life with astronomy and electrical learning topics

“…Böylece "Öğretmenlerin alan bilgileri yetersiz olduğunda bu durum öğrencilerine de yansımaktadır" (Alev & Karal, 2013) probleminin çözümünde rol oynayabilecektir. Çünkü yapılan çalışmalar; öğrenciler, öğretmen adayları ve öğretmenlerin Astronomi ve Elektrik konularında eksik ve yetersiz bilgiye hatta kavram yanılgılarına sahip olduklarını vurgulamaktadır (Bektaşlı, 2016;Brunsell & Marcks, 2005;Kaltakçı & Eryılmaz, 2010;Kanlı, 2014;Karal, Alev & Başkan, 2010;Korur, 2015;Küçüközer & Demirci, 2008;Ogan-Bekiroğlu, 2007;Plummer, 2009;Plummer & Maynard, 2014;Sadler et al, 2010;Small & Plummer, 2014;Steinberg & Cormier, 2013;Trumper, 2000;Trundle et al, 2002Trundle et al, , 2006Wilhelm et al, 2007;Ünsal, Güneş & Ergin, 2001). Öğretmenlerin sahip oldukları alan bilgisi kadar, bu süreçte kullandığı öğretim yöntem ve tekniklerinin de önemli büyüktür (Cantrell, Young & Moore, 2003).…”

“…However, students are not able to understand targeted topics due to the astronomical topics being abstract, lack of practice, or their instructional focus (Korur, 2015;Steinberg & Cormier, 2013). Not only students but also pre-service teachers and teachers have incomplete and inadequate knowledge or even misconceptions (Bektaşlı, 2016;Brunsell & Marcks, 2005;Emrahoğlu & Öztürk, 2009;İyibil & Sağlam Arslan, 2010;Kalkan & Kıroğlu, 2007;Kanlı, 2014;Korur, 2015;Kurnaz, Gültekin & İyibil, 2013;Ogan-Bekiroğlu, 2007;Plummer, 2009;Plummer & Maynard, 2014;Sadler et al, 2013;Small & Plummer, 2014;Steinberg and Cormier, 2013;Trumper, 2000;Trundle et al, 2002Trundle et al, , 2006Türk et al, 2012;Türkoğlu et al, 2009;Ünsal, Güneş & Ergin 2001;Wilhelm et al, 2007). Misconceptions related to the astronomy among individuals occur during primary education and continue until university years (Ünsal, Güneş & Ergin, 2001).…”

The effects of teaching methods on preservice teachers knowledge about basic astronomy subjects

“…Looking at the studies done in the field of astronomy, it can be stated that it is on identifying alternative ideas (Goncu & Korur, 2012;Trumper, 2001;Trundle, Atwood & Christopher, 2006;Trundle & Troland, 1996), knowledge level (Bostan, 2008;Kanli, 2014;Kaplan & Ciftci-Tekinarslan, 2013), mental models (Iyibil, 2010;Iyibil & Saglam-Arslan, 2010;Vosniadou & Brewer, 1992;Vosniadou, Skopeliti & Ikospentaki, 2004) and astronomy self-sufficiency (Carter, 2005;Gunes, 2010). Except these, studies investigating the effect of the teaching method on the conceptual understandings/learning effects of individuals on astronomy issues are also available in the national literature.…”