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

Year 2015, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 28 - 46, 30.08.2015

Ümmü Gülsüm Durukan , Ayşegül Sağlam-arslan

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.15.11.2.2

Cited By: 4

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.

Keywords

Astronomy concepts, Earth, Sun, Moon, teacher candidates, understanding levels

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