Understanding of Earth and Space Science Concepts: Strategies for Concept-Building in Elementary Teacher Preparation (original) (raw)
EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2014
Nowadays, the importance given to astronomy teaching in science and physics education has been gradually increasing. At the same time, teachers play an important role in remediating the misconceptions about astronomy concepts held by students. The present study aims to determine the misconceptions of pre-service physics teachers (n=117), preservice science teachers (n=97) and in-service physics teachers (n=174) about astronomy concepts using a three-tier test. The Astronomy Concept and Achievement Test (ACAT), developed by Trumper (2001a, 2001b, 2006), was adapted as a three-tier instrument and used as the data collection instrument. The first tier, first and second tier and all three tier responses that were obtained from the ACAT were analyzed separately to identify misconceptions and to evaluate the respondents" achievement. The results showed that the achievement scores of pre-service and in-service teachers considerably decreased when the third tier was considered. In addition, when the misconceptions of pre-service and inservice teachers were determined using all three tiers, they held extensive misconceptions especially about the reasons for seasons, the Moon"s phases, the Moon"s phase in the solar eclipse and the Sun"s position in the sky.
Astronomy Education Review, 2009
We report on the development of an item test bank and associated instruments based on those K-12 national standards which involve astronomy and space science. Utilizing hundreds of studies in the science education research literature on student misconceptions, we have constructed 211 unique items that measure the degree to which students abandon such ideas for accepted scientific views. Piloted nationally with 7599 students and their 88 teachers spanning grades 5-12, the items reveal a range of interesting results, particularly student difficulties in mastering the NRC Standards and AAAS Benchmarks. Teachers generally perform well on items covering the standards of the grade level at which they teach, exhibiting few misconceptions of their own. Teachers dramatically overestimate their students' performance, perhaps because they are unaware of their students' misconceptions. Examples are given showing how the developed instruments can be used to assess the effectiveness of instruction and to evaluate the impact of professional development activities for teachers.
… -Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2010
In this study it is aimed to determine preservice science teachers’ and elementary teachers’ level of understanding about measurement units, and devices; and misconceptions about basic science concepts (mass, weight, density, heat, temperature, energy, specific heat etc.). The sample included 92 undergraduate students who are second year preservice elementary teacher; and first and second year elementary science teacher. In this study the data was collected through data meaning-analysis table, which is one of the types of related diagram. In order determine the cause of the problems they encounter while learning measurement devices and units, 12 participants were interviewed using open-ended questions as well. It has been found that preservice teachers have misconceptions in the concepts and units about mass, weight, heat, temperature, energy and specific heat. Interview showed that more attention should be given to related courses which focus on measurement devices and units.
Pre-Service Teachers’ Conceptions of Specific Astronomy Concepts: A Longitudinal Investigation
Journal of Social Science Studies, 2015
The aim of this study is to determine the changes in the knowledge of pre-service Primary and Science teachers related to basic astronomy concepts occurring after four years of undergraduate study in education and the extent of and reasons for these changes. For this purpose, a "Basic Astronomy Test" involving 14 questions was administered to the pre-service Primary and Science teachers by education faculty members in the Black Sea Region of Turkey in the first (2009) and fourth (2013) years of their educations. In the data analysis, nonparametric Mann-Whitney U tests and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were used to
Students Are Not Highly Familiar with Astronomy Concepts – But What about the Teachers?
Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2015
This study aims to assess primary school teachers' knowledge of basic astronomy concepts, such as the sizes and shapes of, and the distances between, the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon, lunar and solar eclipses, and the motions of the Moon and the Earth. Out of a total of 1,533 teachers, 398 (26%) were reached and asked to take a knowledge test. On the knowledge test, the overall performance of the teachers, whose task it is to teach the astronomy concepts in the fifth grade Science and Technology curriculum, stands at 70% while the students' success rate is approximately 50%. It is noteworthy that approximately one out of every three teachers answered the questions incorrectly. In this study, the primary school teachers' low performance on the same questions as the students can be observed as an indicator of this. Placing an astronomy course in undergraduate level in the elementary school teacher-training program could be useful. Thus, pre-service teachers have enough knowledge regarding astronomy subjects before starting their careers.
Journal of Geoscience Education
Effective instruction hinges in part on understanding what prior knowledge students bring to the classroom, and on evaluating how this knowledge changes during instruction. In many disciplines, multiple-choice tests have been developed to gauge student prior knowledge and assess learning. In this study, a 15-item version of the Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI) was used to assess the prior knowledge and learning of students enrolled in an introductory physical and historical geology course specifically designed for preservice elementary (K-8) teachers. Gains (pretest to posttest) among participants (n = 122) averaged 4%, similar to gains reported elsewhere. However, gains among participants enrolled in revised course sections (n = 84) averaged 7-8%. Detailed analysis shows that statistically significant gains occurred on test items related to geologic time, earthquakes, radiometric dating, and tectonics. Items for which the greatest gains were observed correlate with teaching metho...
An Investigation into the Understanding of Earth Sciences among Students Teachers
In this article, the students teachers’ opinions, including rock formation and improper terms related to or diff erent from these ideas, all of which are considered or must be considered in geology classes, have been analyzed. Alternative conception is used to inform our understanding of students teachers’ ideas and describe any conceptual diffi culties which are diff erent from or inconsistent with the accepted scientifi c defi nition. Th e sample consists of 24 student teachers. We have stated that most student teachers have diff erent alternative conceptions in mind even though they have previously followed one undergraduate Earth Sciences course. In order to explain the student teachers alternatives conceptions regarding rock formation, four basic unconscious beliefs have been discovered and described from the results of the analyses. Th ese four beliefs, defi ned as: Rock - Scales of Space and Time - Stable Earth - Human Intervention, are used with the purpose of explaining the considered database outputs and alternative conceptions.
1991
The primary objective of this study was to determine what effect astronomy teaching experience has on the astronomy concepts of elementary school teachers by comparing their conceptions to those held by cohort teachers who had not taught astronomy. In addition, this investigation sought to determine (1) whether teacher interest in astronomy increased as a result of instruction, (2) if interest increased, what kind of relationship exists between interest gains and conceptual change, (3) what astronomy misconceptions are held by teachers who teach astronomy, and (4) how do these misconceptions compare to those held by elementary teachers who do not teach astronomy. A static group comparison design was used to examine the astronomy concepts held by two groups of elementary school teachers in a suburb of Boston, MA. After controlling for prior interest in astronomy and previous astronomy teaching experience, the experimental group consisted of 12 second grade teachers who were using an ...
Determining Pre-Service Teachers’ Astronomy-Related Self-Efficacy Belief Levels
CEPS Journal, 2023
This study aims to reveal the astronomy-related self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers studying science education, primary school education, and social studies education programmes. The study is conducted using the survey design, a quantitative research method. The study sample consists of 322 pre-service teachers in their third or fourth year of a science education, primary school education, or social studies education programme at a university in Turkey’s Central Anatolia Region during the 2016 fall semester. The Astronomy Teaching Self-Efficacy Belief Scale developed by Güneş was used as the data collection tool. SPSS 22 was used to analyse the data, and the analyses benefited from descriptive and inferential statistics. Based on the findings, the pre-service teachers’ total scores for astronomy self-efficacy showed no significant difference in terms of certain variables (i.e., gender, age, year, and having taken a previous astronomy course). However, significant differences were found regarding self-efficacy scores in terms of the programme and having taken part in astronomy and sky-gazing activity. Concerning the obtained results, the following suggestions can be made: pre-service teachers should be actively involved during the astronomy course, and their classroom management experiences should be promoted to improve their astronomy self-efficacy belief levels.
Teacher and Student Perceptions of Earth Science and Its Educational Value in Secondary Schools
Creative Education, 2014
Earth science educators struggle to gain an equal footing in the K-12 curriculum with the life and physical sciences. The low number of students taking Earth sciences courses is at odds with the National Science and Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996, 2012) that gives equal emphasis to Earth and space science (ESS). The purpose of this investigation was to analyze students' and teachers' perceptions of Earth science and its perceived educational values in secondary schools. The sample for this study consisted of 39 science teachers in public secondary schools, and 46 students taking science in those schools. The instruments for the study included a 14-item Earth Science Teacher Survey (ESTS) and a 14-item Earth Science Student Survey (ESSS) (surveys modified from King, 2001). The results of this study showed that teachers do not think that ESS is as important to the secondary school curriculum as physics, chemistry, and biology. Not unexpectedly, Earth science teachers had more positive perceptions of Earth science and its educational value than non-Earth science teachers. Students in this study had more positive perceptions of Earth science and its educational value than teachers. These students also reported a high level of enjoyment learning about Earth science and a high interest in learning about ESS topics.