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Cross-sectional study of students’ knowledge of sizes and distances of astronomical objects

Vinesh M. Rajpaul, Christine Lindstrøm, Megan C. Engel, Morten Brendehaug, and Saalih Allie
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 14, 020108 – Published 14 September 2018
Physics logo See Focus story: Astronomy Students Not Learning the Basics

Abstract

This paper reports on the results from administering a modified version of the Introductory Astronomy Questionnaire (IAQ) to middle school students and preservice science teachers in Norway. Ranking tasks formed a key part of the instrument, and we detail a new method for analyzing ranking task data. One of our main findings was that even after instruction, a significant proportion of students held erroneous views and conceptions regarding sizes, distances, and the nature of basic astronomical entities, such as stars and planets. We argue that the commonalities between some of the issues we identified and those presented in extant studies—from a variety of countries, with samples ranging from junior high school students and undergraduates to primary school teachers—may point to deeper cognitive issues inherent in, and possibly unique to, engaging with astronomy.

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  • Received 25 October 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020108

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics Education Research

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Astronomy Students Not Learning the Basics

Published 14 September 2018

Nearly half of middle school students in a Norwegian study thought that planets are bigger than stars, even after astronomy instruction.

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Authors & Affiliations

Vinesh M. Rajpaul1,2, Christine Lindstrøm3,4,*, Megan C. Engel2, Morten Brendehaug3, and Saalih Allie5

  • 1University of Cambridge, Astrophysics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 3Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, PB 4 St. Olavs plass, N-0130 Oslo, Norway
  • 4Centre for Computing in Science Education, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Sem Sælands vei 24, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
  • 5Department of Physics and Academic Development Programme, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa, 7701

  • *christine.lindstrom@hioa.no

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Vol. 14, Iss. 2 — July - December 2018

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