The determination of misconception of the students who are in the six grade of primary school about the earth and the universe subjects and the effect of the teachers' attitudes and the behaviors on these misconceptions

This study aims to determine how the students who are in the six grade of primary school perceive the concepts about the Earth and the Universe which are mentioned in the unit of geography and our world which takes place in the curriculum of Social Studies education and how much the attitudes and the behaviors of their teachers are effective on their present perceptions about this concepts. 831 students and 26 teachers were chosen from the 24 primary schools which gives education in Ankara. Selective students have been divided into twentysix groups in total each teacher having one group. This study applied in 2001-2002 Spring Sömester and the received data evaluated for the contributions which would be applied to social studies education and especially to instruction of the Earth and Universe concept. In order to detect students misconceptions related to "Earth and Universe related concept" first of all a questionnaire with 24 quetions was prepared for to collect students opinions on the Earth and Universe related concept) Again in order to evaluate the teachers' attitudes and behaviors aimed at the instruction of this subject, a quastionaire which consists of 34 questions have been given to the teachers. After the data received, the concequences evaluated for to contribute science education and instruction of the Earth and Universe related concept in science lessons. The proposes which were received from the data of the questionaire and from the literatüre were given at the end of this study. Especially the students' wrong perceptions about the Earth and the Universe subjects and the attitudes and the behaviors of the teachers effect on the presentation of this subject have been studied. Questions were evaluated with the statistics programs SPSS. After the data received from the concept questionnaire and research on the literature, proposals related to this concept instruction were presented for the science educators.KEYWORDS: Social Stdies Education, Concepts, Msconcepts, Alternative Conceptions, Concept Education, Six Grade Students Level, Earth and Universe Concepts.