Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of including the concept of angular distance and differing inference methods for students' understanding of lunar phases. In this study, four classes (120 students) in a public primary school were divided into two groups, one for working on deductive learning and another for working on inductive learning. Both groups were divided again; one was given a lesson which included the concept of angular distance, and the other was not. After the classes, students' understanding of lunar phases was examined, and re-examined again three months later. The results of the examination showed that deductive learning was an effective approach for acquiring the concept of lunar phases. In addition, when including the concept of angular distance in the process of learning phases of the moon, it was more effective to position it in the process of deductive rather than inductive learning.
