• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.26-37
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary pre-service science teachers' misconceptions of tide and to develop a learning module that can change misconceptions into scientific concepts and to examine the effect of the learning module for conceptual change. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher developed the test tool of tidal phenomena and the learning module using cognitive conflict strategy. The subjects of this study were 40 first year students who majored science education at a college of education in G metropolitan city. The results of this study are as follows. First, secondary pre-service science teachers had various misconceptions about tidal phenomena. Second, the developed learning module was effective in changing misconceptions about tide of pre-service science teachers into scientific concepts. However, some students had misconceptions about tidal phenomena after learning the developed module. The typical misconception was that they could not distinguish the centrifugal force generated when the earth and the moon revolve about the center of common mass as the center of rotation and the centrifugal force generated by the earth's rotation. And they did not know that they should not consider the earth's rotation while the earth was revolving around the center of common mass.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.671-681
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• 2009

In the equilibrium theory of tides by Newton, tide on the Earth is a phenomenon driven by differential gravity contributed both by the Sun and the Moon. Due to the direct link of the generic tidal effect to the oceanic tides, college students in the earth science education department are exposed to this theory through oceanography lectures as well as astronomy lectures. Common oceanography textbooks adopt a non-inertial reference frame fixed to the Earth in which the fictitious, centrifugal force appears. This has a potential risk to provide misconceptions among students in various aspects including the followings: 1) this is how Newton originally derived the equilibrium theory of tides, and 2) the tide is a phenomenon appearing only in rotating systems. We show that in astronomy, a much simpler description, which employs the inertial frame, is generally used to explain tides and thus causes less confusion. We argue that the description used in astronomy is preferable both in the viewpoints of simplicity and ease of interpretation. Moreover, on a historical basis, an inertial frame was adopted by Newton in Principia to explain tides. Thus, the description used in astronomy is consistent with Newton's original approach. We also present various astrophysical tides which do not comply with the concept of centrifugal force in general. We therefore argue that the description used in oceanography should be compensated by that in astronomy, due to its complexity, historical inconsistency and limited applicability.