The difficulties of teaching space science subjects in the new science lesson curriculum

The order of the astronomy and space science subjects in the Earth and Universe subject area in the science curriculum which started to be implemented in the secondary schools since 2018 was changed in comparison with the previous curriculum. The relevant units, which took part in the end of the education year, replaced to the beginning of the year. The aim of this study is to search the teaching difficulties which have arisen with this changing. The focus of this thesis is identifying the problems which occurred because of this change according to the teachers and searching the experienced difficulties as a result of this. In this study, which was conducted as a qualitative study, the content analysis method was used for the data. The main purpose of this analyzing method is to offer the obtained findings as summarized and interpreted for the readers. The survey data was gotten by the face to face interviews, which were carried through with the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades Science teachers in Antalya. In the interviews semi-structured open ended questions were used. The data was classified and presented as themes and codes. The 93,3 % participant teachers gave positive opinion about the changes of the curriculum of Science about the astronomy and space science subjects because it is increasing the interest and the students enjoy starting a new education year through popular astronomy topics. Some of the complications arose with replacing the astronomy subjects to the beginning in the new Science curriculum emerged as the lack of adequate readiness of student, the deficiency of reaching the appropriate materials and supporting sources for the level of students for teachers, and not to have the necessary physical and technical equipment on the subject at schools yet. According to the findings of the research, the challenges of Science teachers in teaching astronomy subjects classified as the difficulties which has been experienced with the students, the reason of physical and technical equipment of school, the school administration, parents, other branch teachers or Science teachers, and the execution of the curriculum phases. In the results and suggestion section of the research, some important suggestions recommended for both the teachers and the researchers.