The Analysis of the Understanding Levels of Teacher Candidates in Different Departments about Basic Astronomy Concepts

Ümmü Gülsüm Durukan,Ayşegül Sağlam-Arslan

doi:10.17275/per.15.11.2.2

Abstract

Learners face a variety of concepts during the instructional process they experience. These concepts are mostly introduced by teachers; thus, the competences of teachers in terms of teaching concepts are vitally important. The aim of this study is to detect the understanding levels of teacher candidates about basic astronomy concepts. The method of the study was a survey method. The sample of the study was composed of 293 teacher candidates from early childhood teacher education, primary school teacher education, elementary science education and physics education departments. The data were collected by the achievement test, which included three questions intended to help describe, draw and explain the movement. The data were analysed by using the two different understanding levels in the literature. The data obtained showed that the teacher candidates could not submit proper explanations for the concepts: the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, planets, stars and satellites. This situation can be interpreted as an indicator that teacher candidates did not have enough information about the basic astronomy concepts. When the departments were compared with respect to the understanding levels, it can be said that teacher candidates from elementary science teacher education and physics teacher education departments were at a better level of understanding than their counterparts in early childhood teacher education and elementary teacher education departments. We must ensure that candidates are aware of their deficiencies and for these deficiencies to be eliminated we present various opportunities about astronomy activities like finding the Sun and a star using Stellarium program for the candidates to help develop themselves.

Highlights

Astronomy is one of the disciplines of science which humans have taken an interest in since the first ages and have conducted various studies on
The knowledge and skills which the teacher candidates gained throughout their education life about the field of astronomy can be listed as follows: within the framework of a life-science course under the theme of ‘Yesterday, Today, Future’, the students learned the concepts of the Earth and the Sun in the 1st grade, the same concepts, their motions and what can see when look up the sky in the 2nd grade, the Moon and its phases, the Earth and its motion and the concepts of the Sun in the 3rd grade (MEB, 2009)
The findings from this study reveal that the candidates have difficulty in answering questions related to basic astronomy concepts at a scientific understanding level

Summary

Introduction

Astronomy is one of the disciplines of science which humans have taken an interest in since the first ages and have conducted various studies on. It has begun to gain a place in instructional research, since it took its place in education programs. We encounter astronomy topics in almost every level of the instructional process in Turkey, so teaching astronomy has an importance, both in primary and secondary education, and in the institutions which train teachers (Küçüközer, Bostan &Işıldak, 2010). The author said the study of astronomy was beneficial because it included, experimental methods, and a dimension related to observation. It was asserted that astronomy is a science which teaches the individuals to think effectively, both correctly and logically (Tunca, 2005)

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