Pre-service physics teachers’ understanding on total lunar eclipse: A response of supermoon on January 31st 2018

Abstract

At the end of January 2018, the spectacular phenomena of astronomy that some people call super-blue-blood moon happened on the night of January 31st or the early morning of February 1st. These phenomena are consequences of a total lunar eclipse. In Indonesia, these three terms of moon become a controversy. Therefore it needs to be more investigated. Furthermore, this study has two research questions: (1) to what extent do the Indonesian PSTs’ existing knowledge and reasoning of the lunar eclipse phenomena? and (2) to what extent do the Indonesian PSTs’ existing knowledge and reasoning of the supermoon, blue moon, and blood moon?. A qualitative research method was considered in helping the researcher to construct some meanings. There were eight teen participants involved in an interview and a written questionnaire process. The PSTs’ reasoning was categorised into four levels: dissatisfied (naïve), intelligible, plausible, and fruitful. The findings indicated that PSTs have some reasoning about the lunar eclipse, however, they unfamiliar with the super-blue-blood moon. It means their reasoning reached the level of plausible and fruitful according to the first research question and at the level of ‘dissatisfied’ and ‘intelligible’ for the second research question.