Preservice science and physics teachers' misconceptions about motions of the Moon

This study is about motions of the Moon which is an important topic in science education curriculum. In this sense, phases of the Moon, eclipses and tides were handled. The sample of the study consists of preservice science and physics teachers. The participants were asked open ended questions related to motions of the Moon. In this sense, semi-structured interviews were carried out. Questions were evaluated by experts and a pilot study was conducted for validity and reliability of the questions. The questions were revised based on experts' comments and results of pilot study. The questions are about the concepts like tides, eclipses, and phases of the moon that are related to the displacement and spinning motions of the Moon. The interviews were recorded with a voice recorder and also participants were asked to make some drawings related to their explanations. Misconceptions that preservice teachers have were examined by transcribing the interviews and analyzing the drawings. The results showed that physics teachers have more misconceptions than science teachers.