SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ MENTAL MODELS OF THE SUN, THE EARTH, THE MOON AND THE SUN-EARTH-MOON SYSTEM

Özet

The aim of this study is to determine the mental models of the secondary school students about the basic astronomy concepts of the Sun, Earth, Moon (SEM) System. For this purpose, seven open- ended questions developed by the researcher in order to reveal their mental models and were applied to the secondary school students after the necessary corrections were made by the three science educators. The sample of the study consisted of 198 students (50 fifth grade, 50 sixth grades, 50 seventh grades, 48 eighth grades) studying in two secondary schools in Ağrı city center. The data obtained from the study were analyzed and using the mental model determination process proposed by Vosniadou and Brewer (1992, 1994). It has been tried to determine mental models of students separalely for each grade level. Findings from the research data revealed that students were “primitive” in 5th grade, had a “synthesis model” in 6th grade, “primitive and synthesis models” were in balanced level in 7th grade. In the 8th grade, most of the students had a synthesis model but the number of students at the scientific level was more than the other classes.