The Effect of Conceptual Change Texts on Pre-Service Science Teachers' Achievement Levels Towards Astronomy

This study aims to develop conceptual change texts to change the misconceptions in astronomy courses and to compare the effect of conceptual change texts on the achievement levels of pre-service science teachers towards astronomy with classical text and traditional learning methods. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test post-test control group. The study sample consisted of 4th-grade pre-service teachers studying in the Department of Science Teaching at a state university in Türkiye and taking the astronomy course. The first experimental group, consisting of 27 pre-service teachers, used conceptual change texts, and the second experimental group, consisting of 24 pre-service teachers, used classical texts in the experimental process. The control group of 26 pre-service teachers continued the lessons using the traditional learning method. In this respect, the study's sampling method was determined to be purposive sampling. The astronomy achievement test, developed by the researchers and used to measure the success of pre-service teachers in astronomy subjects, consists of 34 multiple-choice questions. Based on the pilot studies and expert opinions, researchers conducted validity and reliability studies of the test and calculated item difficulty and discrimination indices. In the study, t-tests for dependent groups, t-tests for independent groups and one-factor variance (one-way ANOVA) for unrelated samples were performed, and the results were evaluated. At the end of the intervention, the achievement score of the group to which conceptual change texts were utilized was significantly higher than the group using traditional teaching method.