Pre-Service Primary Science Teachers’ Understandings of the Moon's Phases and Lunar Eclipse

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore pre-service primary science teachers’ understandings of the moon's phases and lunar eclipse. The survey approach was used as the research method. The sample consisted of one-hundred and five first year pre-service primary science teachers. As a tool for data collection, a test composed of six open-ended questions that drew on the scholarly literature, developed by the researchers, was used. The data from students’ responses was analyzed descriptively. The statistical analysis indicated that the chi square statistics calculated is significant at a level of 0.05, suggesting that the observed frequencies’ differences among various levels of understanding are not due to chance. The findings showed that pre-service primary science teachers’ understanding of the moon's phases and lunar eclipses was rather weak and that they hold common misunderstandings, suggesting that traditional instruction approaches are not enough to achieve meaningful, conceptual learning and must be replaced with alternative approaches.