Middle School Students’ Misconceptions about the Concepts of Astronomy

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to conduct developmental comparison of the middle school students’ misconceptions about the concepts of astronomy. The sampling of the study is comprised of middle school students attending a private school located in the west of Turkey. A total of 144 students participated in the study. In order to determine the students’ perceptions of the concepts of astronomy, a data collection tool consisting of five open-ended questions was developed by the researchers. The data collected through this data collection tool was subjected to content analysis; on the basis of the analysis of the students’ responses, codes were determined and on the basis of these codes, themes were constructed. The results are presented as percentages and frequencies. When the findings of the study were generally evaluated, it was concluded that the students have misconceptions about the concepts of astronomy.