Abstract:

This study is aimed to determine the perceptions of pre-service teachers about the concepts such as universe, celestial body, black hole, the sun and the moon. The phenomenology pattern from qualitative research was adopted in the study. The study group consists of 10 pre-service teachers who are enrolled in the last year of Pre-school, Elementary School and Science Teaching Programs in the 2019-2020 Academic Year. As a data collection tool, a semi-structured interview form was used to collect data and content analysis was made. The findings indicated that the pre-service teachers mostly associated the concept of the universe with the concepts of space (void), stars, planets and galaxies. On the other hand, in the study, it was concluded that the awareness of the pre-service teachers' of the solar eclipse and celestial bodies was high, and their perceptions of the concept of the universe were limited. Pre-service teachers have incomplete or incorrect information about the movements of the Sun and the Moon and about the black hole. Some pre-service teachers confuse the concepts of entanglement and rotation related to the motion of the Moon. In order to prevent incomplete learning and mislearning in teacher candidates, suggestions were made such as the use of active teaching materials and methods such as models and simulations, as well as teaching the course as a separate course from the scope of science courses.

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