Science and Non-Science Teachers' Views about Astronomy Diagrams in Middle School Science Textbooks

Abstract

In the present study, we have explored an aspect of teachers? perceptions of astronomy diagrams. The research was done in Turkey. The data were gathered from 40 teachers from primary and secondary schools. Some of the participants (20 teachers) are science specialist teachers and the others (20 teachers) are non-science specialist teachers. The study is based on a qualitative approach. Firstly, astronomy diagrams from the middle school science textbooks were chosen by the researchers. Then the selected diagrams were shown to the teachers and they were asked what they see when they look at these selected astronomy diagrams. The data was treated by qualitative data analysis (open coding). It is indispensible fact that science specialist teachers and non-science specialist teachers have different knowledge about astronomy topics. However, while looking at the images, there are no much different responses (arrow, colour, text etc.) between these two groups of teachers. We conclude that it may be helpful to train teachers in the processes of constructing and reading diagrams.