A series of astronomy action research studies including a high correlation between student self-report knowledge and examination scores. Literature review of astronomy education research organized by the NSES content learning objectives. The authors propose that misconceptions about seasons might not be as firmly entrenched as commonly thought. Many student conceptions are consistent across cultures. Students who use physical models during instruction have larger achievement gains than students who only use mental models.
Students can often give correct answers to test questions without having accurate mental models.
The manipulation of celestial spheres and visits to interactive planetarium presentations improve student understanding of sky motion. Students think that moon phases are caused by Earth's shadow on Moon. Exlploration of student difficulties with prediction strategies and semantics that physicists use when describing images, mirrors, and lenses. Describes the rigorous development a nationally adopted conceptual test in physics education that is used to determine the effectiveness of various instructional techniques for students' conceptions of Newton's three laws of motion. Teachers predict much higher student achievement gains than students can actually achieve.