The analysis of the understanding levels and mental models of candidate teachers studying at different departments about basic astronomy concepts

Learners face 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 and mental models of candidate teachers studying in various departments about basic astronomy concepts. The method of the study is survey method. The sample of the study was composed of 293 candidate teachers studying at KTU Fatih Faculty of Education, preschool education, primary school classroom education, primary school science education and secondary school physics education departments in 2009-2010 educational year. The data of the study was collected by the interviews and the achievement test developed by the researcher along with the opinions of experts. The data from the achievement test were analyzed on two levels: First, the understanding levels of candidate teachers were determined for each individual item of the test and the understanding levels of the departments were compared. Then the individual status of the participants were analyzed and interpreted with regard to their understanding levels. The mental models of the candidates related to concepts were determined with the help of the data coming from the second analysis. On the other hand, the interview data were analyzed with descriptive analysis method. The obtained data showed that the candidate teachers could not submit proper explanations for the concepts; the earth, the sun, the moon, planet, star and satellite. This situation was interpreted as the indicator of that candidate teachers have not enough information about the basic astronomy terms. When the departments were compared with respect to the understanding levels, it can be said that candidate teachers from primary school science education and secondary school physics education departments were at a better level than the counterparts at preschool education and primary school classroom education departments. As a result of this study 9 different mental models were revealed; optimum, basic, conceptual, memorizing, selective, definitive, concrete, relational and inconsistent models. It was observed that the candidates mostly had inconsistent model and least frequently had optimum model. It was also observed that candidate teachers from primary school science education and secondary school physics education departments had model types including more scientific information than the candidates from preschool education and primary school classroom education departments for most of the concepts. Therefore, the anticipated difference among the departments was actually observed.