• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.886-901
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to document the changes in astronomical concepts for preservice and inservice elementary school teachers after being presented with the newly devised Earth Motions Centric Solar System Model. The subjects of the study were 31 preservice and 30 inservice elementary schools teachers in the Jeonbuk Province. First, the author investigated the naive theories of the subjects, and then, compared that data to the data obtained after their exposure to the model. The total number of items on the instrument for this study was 10. These items included questions about the motion of interior planets, the phases and sizes of interior planets, and the motion of exterior planets and comets. After analyzing the answers to the items before the experiment, the author was able to confirm the existence of the naive theories regarding astronomical phenomena. Also, after the experiment, the author was able to observe the conceptual change in thought of the preservice and inservice elementary school teachers. Results showed that learning through the new model had positive effects on the preservice and inservice elementary school teachers' conceptualization of the interior planets' motion, phases and sizes, and the exterior planets' motion.