Determining the misconceptions of secondary school students regarding the concept of telescop

The aim of this study is to identify the conceptual misconceptions of sixth-grade students regarding the concept of telescope. The research was utilized a qualitative research method and employed a case study design. The study group was determined through convenience sampling, and for the pilot application, students from the Department of Science Education at various faculties of education in Turkey who were in their third and fourth years of study were selected. For the main application, sixth-grade students from a public school affiliated with the central district of the Düzce province in Turkey participated in this study. A total of 14 students from the sixth grade in the 2021-2022 academic year took part in the main application. Semi-structured interview forms and field notes were used as data collection tools. The data were analyzed through content analysis, which involved the following steps: i) The data were transcribed into written documents, ii) Conceptual misconceptions regarding the telescope were identified and coded separately for each students, iii) Similar codes were grouped together to determine themes, and iv) The codes and themes were sent to a subject expert to assess their consistency. As a result of data analysis, 16 different conceptual misconceptions regarding the telescope concept were identified. These misconceptions were grouped under four different themes: "Structure of the telescope," "Working principle of the telescope," "Celestial objects observable through a telescope," and "Lens in the telescope." These misconceptions are primarily influenced by everyday experiences with lenses and optical technologies, as well as societal discourse, including the influence of written and visual media, including textbooks.