Teaching future teachers basic astronomy concepts—seasonal changes—at a time of reform in science education

Abstract

Bearing in mind students' misconceptions about basic concepts in astronomy, the present study conducted a series of constructivist activities aimed at changing future elementary and junior high school teachers' conceptions about the cause of seasonal changes, and several characteristics of the Sun–Earth–Moon relative movements like Moon phases, Sun and Moon eclipses, and others. The activities and results concerning the cause of seasonal changes are reported. Both the experimental class and the control groups improved their grasp of basic astronomy concepts statistically significantly, although the experimental class made the most impressive progress of all. Regarding subjects relevant to this study (seasonal changes), only the experimental class showed a statistically significant improvement, which justifies the constructivist approach. We conclude that in implementing a reform in the science curriculum, the change has to include the subjects taught and also the way they are taught. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 879–906, 2006

Student opinions on teaching astronomy with hands-on models<p>Fiziksel modellerle astronomi öğretimine ilişkin öğrenci görüşleri

“…Astronomi eğitimiyle yapılan çalışmalar incelendiğin öğrencilerin en çok alternatif kavrama ve zihinsel modele sahip olduğu konuların başında mevsimler, tutulmalar, Ay'ın evreleri ve takımyıldızlar gibi konular gelmektedir (Foster, 1996;Kikas, 1998;Lelliott ve Rollnick, 2010;Schoon, 1992;Trumper, 2006;Tsai & Chang, 2005;Türk ve Kalkan, 2015, 2017Vosniadou, 1992). Öğrencilerin çeşitli alternatif kavramlara ve zihinsel modellere sahip olduğu bu konulardaki modeller, onların ilgisini çekmiştir şeklinde düşünülebilir.…”

Developing multiple-choices test items as tools for measuring the scientific-generic skills on solar system

“…Trumper [4] says thatcreate the three greatest interesting physics topics for junior high school kids and girls were How it impressions to be fluffy in space? How meteors, comets, or asteroids may cause disasters on earth?…”

“…How meteors, comets, or asteroids may cause disasters on earth? and 'Black holes, supernovas, and other spectacular objects in outer space [4]. The content concerns the reason for day and night, an elementary astronomical concept deemed as one of the most essential ideas which form the Earth conception [6].These three most interesting physics topics is contained in chapter solar system.…”

Qué contenidos y qué habilidades cognitivo-lingüísticas emplea el profesorado de primaria y secundaria en la enseñanza de la astronomía

“…Este tema encierra un importante interés educativo, posee una presencia curricular continuada a lo largo de la educación primaria (DOG, 13 de julio de 2007) y primer ciclo de secundaria obligatoria (DOG, 9 de julio de 2007), y suscita problemas de enseñanza/ aprendizaje atendidos por la investigación, como por ejemplo la detección de concepciones alternativas en niños y jóvenes (Baxter, 1989;De Manuel y Graus, 1996;Nussbaum, 1979;Palomar, 2014;Plummer, 2009;Vosniadou y Brewer, 1992) y también en adultos y profesores (Bell y Trundle, 2008;Bryce y Blown, 2012), o el diseño y evaluación de propuestas de enseñanza dirigidas a escolares (Plummer, WasKoa y Slagleb, 2011), a profesores en formación (Bell, 2008;García Barros, Mondelo y Martínez Losada, 1996;Navarrete, 2003;Trumper, 2006) y en ejercicio (Vega Navarro, 2001;Shen y Confrey, 2007, 2010. Sin embargo, la relación entre astronomía y lenguaje ha recibido menos consideración (Lelliott y Rollnick, 2010), a pesar de la importancia que tiene la elaboración de textos y discursos tanto descriptivos como justificativos en el aprendizaje de las regularidades astronómicas y su explicación teó-rica a través de modelos.…”