Determination of pre-service science teachers' success levels and misconceptions about planets and stars in terms of some variables

Astronomy education, which gained importance abroad at the beginning of the 2000s, has relatively recently begun to attract attention in our country. Astronomy course was included in the science teaching undergraduate program in 2006, but since it was a senior course, those who graduated in 2010 or later could take this course. The knowledge that science teachers have about astronomy subjects is transferred to their students. Therefore, they must have a good astronomy education before they graduate from college. The aim of this study is to determine the success levels and the misconceptions of pre-service science teachers about stars and planets in terms of some variables. In this study, one of the mixed methods, sequential explanatory design was used. While the quantitative sample of the study consists of 168 pre-service science teacher studying at different grade levels who have taken astronomy course and who have not whereas the qualitative sample of the study consists of 12 pre-service science teacher. Star and Planet Concept Test (SPCT) consisting of 24 open-ended questions, and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tools in this study. Microsoft Excel, SPSS program, parametric tests, and transcripts of the interviews were used to analyze the data. As a result of this research, the misconceptions and lack of knowledge of participants who took and didn't take astronomy course about planet and star was emerged. Moreover, a significant difference was detected between the success levels about planets and stars of pre-service science teacher who took and did not take astronomy course. Keywords: astronomy education, success levels, misconceptions, planet, star, pre-service science teachers.