Middle School Students’ Misconceptions about the Concepts of Astronomy

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to conduct developmental comparison of the middle school students' misconceptions about the concepts of astronomy. The sampling of the study is comprised of middle school students attending a private school located in the west of Turkey. A total of 144 students participated in the study. In order to determine the students' perceptions of the concepts of astronomy, a data collection tool consisting of five open-ended questions was developed by the researchers. The data collected through this data collection tool was subjected to content analysis; on the basis of the analysis of the students' responses, codes were determined and on the basis of these codes, themes were constructed. The results are presented as percentages and frequencies.When the findings of the study were generally evaluated, it was concluded that the students have misconceptions about the concepts of astronomy.

Enhancing the conceptual comprehension of astronomy for grade seventh students using multimedia

“…Since the contents related to astronomy are abstract (Dendup et al, 2021;Kersting et al, 2020), employing effective strategies for teaching and learning astronomy is essential. Moreover, students have misconceptions about astronomy contents (Aksan et al, 2017;Baybars & Can, 2018;Koca, 2019). Therefore, digital technology effectively contributes to teaching and learning abstract concepts like astronomy (Oktay, 2022).…”

“…Astronomy is one of the earliest disciplines and attracted considerable interest from the people (Baybars & Can, 2018). They also claimed that before the development of writing, people conducted their lives according to the sun and moon they viewed during the day and night.…”

Pre-Service Teachers Conceptual Understanding in Space Science

“…In recent years, study on the basic concepts of space science and astronomy have been intensively carried out by many researchers around the world (Baybars, 2018;Brunsell & Marcks, 2005;Taşcan, 2013). Brunsell and Marcks (2005) conducted a study on 142 science teachers and employed an astronomy concepts recognition test as a data collection tool.…”

“…The findings also showed that all the variables do not emerge in teachers' knowledge. In another study conducted by Baybars (2018), the conclusion made was that the middle school students also encounter some misconceptions about the basic concepts of astronomy such as the universe, solar system, star, planet and constellation.…”

Misconceptions in the Learning of Natural Sciences: A Systematic Review

“…It has also been highlighted that both in-service and pre-service teachers have inadequate alternative conceptions in astronomy [59]. This can influence the way they approach teaching, and it directly affects students' understanding of science [60].…”