Primary 6th and 8th grade students? misconceptions of the moon phases and investigation of conceptual change in coopetarive learning environment

The general purpose of this study is to find out sixth and eighth grades students' misconceptions about the phases of the moon and to investigate affect of traditional teaching method and cooperative teaching method about eliminating these misconceptions. The study was conducted in a public elementary school in Kozan, which is the town of Adana, in the academic year of 2008-2009 . A total of 62 students took part in the investigation group which included with cooperating group that there are 18 students in the sixth grade and 17 students in the eight grade and traditional group that there are 11 students in the sixth grade and 16 students in the eight grade. While the courses are taught with cooperative teaching method in the experimental group, they are taught with traditional teaching method in the control group. Pre-interviews were conducted in order to get students' initial knowledge. After the instructions, post-interviews were conducted in order to get students? final knowledge. Transcripts from the interviews were investigated, coded and scored according to determined categorizes. On the other hand, comparisons between experimental and control groups were made with the Mann-Whitney U test, Wilxocon Sign Rank Test, and frequencies. As a result of analysis, misconceptions about the phases of the moon were determined. There were not significant differences in removing misconceptions about the phases of the moon between traditional teaching method and cooperative teaching method as statistical. However, some of the students in cooperative group were determined changing conceptions about moon phases.Keywords: Science education, Collaborative instruction, Astronomy education, Constructivist learning, Moon phases.