Pre-Service Teachers Conceptual Understanding in Space Science

Space science discovery has stimulated interest among Malaysian teachers, students and the society after the success of sending a Malaysian astronaut into space. It has resulted in the incorporation of astronomy education at primary and secondary schools. However, the development of astronomy education is hastened due to the lack of astronomy education research focusing on specialized knowledge among school teachers. Limited astronomy content knowledge in lessons poses detrimental effects on student learning and may form misconceptions, not just among the students but the teachers as well. This study is intended to determine the level of conceptions and misconceptions in space science among the pre service teachers. A set of space science test was distributed to 140 preservice teachers from diverse courses in public university in Malaysia. The result of this study reveals that preservice teachers have moderately (37.86%) conceptual understanding of space science with a number of misconceptions of basic astronomy concepts such as the formation of the seasons, the causes of day and night and the galaxy. Interestingly, gender and major study of pre service teachers do not show any substantial difference in understanding the space science concept. Education was found to be the most important factors which contributed to the pre service teachers’ understanding of the space science concepts. This study sheds light into the crucial needs to increase the understanding of pre service teachers on nature, elements in outer space, and philosophy of science to avoid them from teaching the misconception of space science to their students.