Poster presented during ISE2A Conference at University of Utrecth. Authors: Silvia Galano, Irene Marzoli, Arturo Colantonio, Silvio Leccia, Emanuella Puddu and Italo Testa

1. DEVELOPMENT and VALIDATION of a LEARNING PROGRESSION
of BASIC ASTRONOMY PHENOMENA
Basic Facts
Causal
reasoning
Spatial
reasoning
Revised Learning Progression on Celestial Motion
Level Progressor Indicator
1
(Lower Anchor)
Explanations based on naïve ideas: Lack or insufficient
knowledge about Earth-Sun distance, and about the motion of
the Moon around the Earth and the Sun.
2 Explanations from basic facts: Knowledge of plane geometry
conditions, and of E-S-Mpositions and motion.
3
Explanations with simple implications from basic facts:
Knowledge of Earth’s surface illumination conditions, and of
the frequency of Moon phases and eclipses phenomena.
4
(Upper Anchor)
Explanations showing more complex reasoning: Knowledge of
3D geometrical features of the Sun, Moon, and Earth motion,
and of how change of the observer’s perspective may change
the description of the phenomena.
Earth’s axis remains
parallel to itself, three
body motion in 3D
space
Relationship
between the
tilt of Earth's
axis and the
inclination of
sunrays;
consequenc
es of Earth,
Sun and
Moon
relative
motion
Position of
Earth, Sun and
Moon during
eclipses,
eccentricity of
Earth's orbit
Moon's orbit
period, Moon
phases' shape
Tilt of Earth's
axis, Earth's
revolution,
relative
inclination of
orbit plans
Learning progressions (LP) have been recently proposed as a key research approach to
describe and interpret students’ understanding of core concepts in science. There is an
increasing consensus in the science education community on the pivoting role of validated
LPs, since they can be useful means to improve teaching practices at different school levels.
In this research project we plan to develop and validate a LP about Celestial Motion Big
Idea focusing on three basic phenomena: change of seasons, solar and lunar eclipses and
Moon phases. This choice is justified by the fact that astronomy topics can motivate and
attract students, stimulating their sense of discovery, and can be used to introduce many
physics related topics such as light properties or energy transfers. Moreover, previous
research studies have shown that students hold a variety of misconceptions about basic
astronomical phenomena.
Learning Progression
We adopted the following definition of LP: a description “of the successively more
sophisticated ways of thinking about a topic that can follow one another as children learn
about and investigate a topic over a broad span of time” (NRC, 2007). LPs are
developed around cross cutting concepts (Big Ideas) and they rooted in a developmental
view of learning (Driver, 1994) in which the students learn a given science content
starting from their intuitive ideas (lower anchor) and progress through subsequent levels
of more sophisticated understanding of the topic towards the scientifically correct idea
(upper anchor). The validation of LP is a research-based cycle (Neumann, Viering,
Boone & Fischer, 2013). After an initial LP has been developed, data are collected to
inspect the alignment with the actual students’ achievements. If the alignment is poor, the
measurement instrument and the initial LP need to be revised. The cycle ends when such
alignment becomes sufficiently satisfactory.
Students' difficulties in astronomy
Research showed that Celestial Motion related phenomena are difficult to understand for
the students. For instance, students think that seasons are caused by the changing distance
between Sun and the Earth (Baxter, 1989). Students do not take into account of all the
conditions for the change of seasons, for instance not referring to the tilt and the constant
direction in space of Earth axis (Atwood & Atwood, 1996). As far as Moon phases and
solar/lunar eclipses, students often confuse the two phenomena (Trumper, 2001) or
explain them only in terms of the shadows of other planets (Baxter, 1989).
RQ1: how do students develop their understanding about change of seasons, Moon phases
and solar/lunar eclipses from middle school to graduate level?
RQ2: drawing on RQ1 findings, which learning progression that describes students’
cognitive stages about the addressed astronomical phenomena can be hypothesized?
RQ3: how well does the hypothesized learning progression actually describe students’
understanding of the addressed astronomical phenomena across different educational
levels? How can it be optimized?
RQ4: to what extent a teaching learning sequence based on the optimized learning
progression is effective in addressing students’ misconceptions about the addressed
astronomical phenomena?
Methods and instruments
RQ1: we initially developed an open questionnaire, based on previous studies, to
investigate students' ideas about targeted astronomical phenomena.
RQ2: starting from the open questionnaire results, we developed a first version of a LP for
each phenomenon, identifying a suitable number of levels (around 2-3) of increasing
sophisticated explanations. Upper and lower anchors of each LP were defined starting from
the collected data (see methods section).
RQ3: to empirically validate the hypothesized LPs, a 48-items mixed true/false, multiple-
choice questionnaire was developed. The items were designed and grouped so to correspond
to the LPs levels. Emerging patterns of students’ answers to the questionnaire will provide
support for designing a single leaning progression about Celestial Motion.
RQ4: drawing on RQ3 results, we will develop suitable teaching-learning sequences (TLSs)
for secondary and middle school. The TLSs will help student progress across the subsequent
levels of the resulting LP about Celestial Motion (Psillos & Papadouris, 2016). The TLSs
will be validated through cycles of school implementation during which further data (field
observations, students’ worksheets) will be collected.
Data analysis
Students’ answers to the open questionnaire were analysed through a content-based iterative
categorization: levels of understanding were coded as informed, partial and naïve. The
emerging categories informed the initial LP levels.
Students’ answers to the mixed true/false multiple-choice questionnaire were analysed using
Rasch analysis. Rasch analysis relates the probability of correctly answering an item to the
difference between a student’s ability and an item’s difficulty. Given the adopted design of
the questionnaire’s items, comparing difficulties of the items hence allowed us to compare
also levels of the hypothesized learning progression and to revise them according to actual
students’ achievements.
The single learning progression about the three phenomena will be developed by grouping
items by their difficulties, as emerged from the Rasch analysis.
Finally, to validate the developed TLSs we will use as pre- and post-test the two versions of
the questionnaire and we will triangulate results with evidences emerging from the other
data sources.
Sample
Preliminary study:
189 students at the beginning (13-14 years old) and the end (18-19 years)
10 university students
Main study:
10 Prospective Secondary Physics Teachers
10 Prospective Primary Teachers
80 Prospective middle school Science Teachers
140 Secondary school Students (18-19 ys)
114 Secondary school Students (13-14 ys)
Our results suggest that similar cognitive factors may inform students’ understanding of the
basic astronomical phenomena (solar and lunar eclipses, changes of seasons and Moon
phases). In particular we found that spatial reasoning is a key factor for building a coherent
explanatory framework for Celestial Motion big idea (Testa I., Galano S., Leccia S. &
Puddu E. (2015))
We have developed a second version of our 48-items for middle school students
introducing drawing based items. We have already submitted this questionnaire to about
150 students and the analysis has just began.
First Learning Progressions on basic astronomical phenomena
Phenomenon Level Progress indicator: The students know that
Seasons
1
(Lower anchor)
Student know that season are due to inclination of
solar rays that changes during the year
2 Level 1 + the revolution of Earth around the Sun
3 Level 2 + tilt of Earth’s axis
Upper anchor Level 3 + Earth’s axis constant direction in space
Eclipses
1
(Lower anchor)
Sun and Moon eclipses are due to alignment
between the Sun, Moon, and Earth
2 Level 1 + alignment happens in a 3D space
Upper anchor
Level 2 + relative inclination of Moon and Earth
orbits’ planes
Moon phases
1
(Lower anchor)
Moon phases are due to revolution of the Moon
around Earth
2 Level 1 + periodicity of the phases
3 Level 2 + Sun illumination
Upper anchor
Level 3 +relative positions of Earth, Moon, and the
Sun
Atwood, R. & Atwood V. (1996). Preservice elementary teachers’ conceptions of the causes of the seasons. Journal of
Research in Science Teaching, 33, 553–563.
Baxter J. (1989). Children’s Understanding of Familiar Astronomical Events. International Journal of Science Education, 11,
502 - 513.
Driver, R. (1994). Making sense of secondary science: research into children’s ideas. New York, NY: Routledge
National Research Council (2007). Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in grade K-8. Washington, DC:
The National Academic Press.
Neumann, K., Viering, T., Boone, W.J., & Fischer, H.E. (2013). Towards a Learning Progression of Energy. Journal of
Research in Science Teaching, 50(2), 162-188.
Theoretical Framework
Research questions
Research design
Conclusions and further steps
References
Silvia Galano1 , Irene Marzoli1, Arturo Colantonio2, Silvio Leccia3, Emanuella Puddu4 and Italo Testa5
1 Physics Division, School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, Via Madonna delle Carceri 9, I-62032 Camerino (MC), Italy
2 Liceo Statale «S. Cantone», Via Savona, I-80038 Pomigliano D'Arco, Italy
3 Liceo Statale «Cartesio», Via Selva Piccola 147, I-80014 Giugliano, Italy
4 INAF - Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory of Naples, Salita Moiariello, 16, I-80131 Napoli, Italy
5 Department of Physics « E. Pancini », ‘Federico II’ University of Napoli, Complesso Monte S.Angelo, Via Cintia, I-80126 Napoli, Italy
Psillos D., & Papadouris N. (2016) Teaching Learning Sequences As Innovations For Science Teaching And Learning. In J.
Lavonen, K. Juuti, J. Lampiselkä, A. Uitto & K. Hahl (Eds.), Proc. of the ESERA 2015 Conference. Science education
research: Engaging learners for a sustainable future, Part 5 (Co--eds: Nikos Papadouris & Dimitris Psillos), pp. 667-669.
Helsinki, Finland: University of Helsinki. ISBN 978-951-51-1541-6
Testa I., Galano S., Leccia S. & Puddu E. (2015). Development and validation of a learning progression for change of seasons,
solar and lunar eclipses, and moon phases
Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 11, 020102
Trumper, R. (2001). A cross-age study of junior high school students’ conceptions of basic astronomy concepts. International
Journal of Science Education, 23, 1111-1123.