Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate university students’, elementary teachers’ and junior high school students’ beliefs in the relationship between the earth’s rotation and the moon phases, and also to determine how the improved model facilitates their understanding of the real cause of moon phases.
First, 28 preservice elementary teachers received instruction for 40 minutes, using the original model for elementary-level science. Out of the 28 teachers, 17 believed that there is a relationship between the rotation of the earth and the phases of the moon, even after instruction was given.
Second, 33 university science students, 57 elementary school teachers and 256 junior high school students received a 40 minute instruction, using the improved model; their understanding of the cause of moon phases was evaluated by a pre-test and a post-test.
A total of 21 (63.6%) university science students, 49 (86.0%) elementary school teachers and 86 (33.6%) junior high school students could not explain the cause of moon phases in the pre-test. However, all of the university science students, 55 (96.5%) elementary teachers and 235 (91.8%) junior high school students were able to explain the cause, in fact more comprehensively than the textbook, in the post-test.
